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Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics

Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics The Olympics, an event where the most physically fit push themselves to the extreme to win against other nations. In 1936, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis held the Olympics in Berlin, Germany. American athletes were trying to decide if they should travel to Berlin and take part in the “Nazi Olympics,” or should they just stay home and protest German racism? The Berlin Olympics was a personal issue for Jesse Owens. He wasn’t sure that he should join because of the racism. But he had a lot to show the world. He became a track star in Ohio, during his high school year. The high school track Coach Charlie Riley noticed his running ability when he saw him during a PE class, and asked him to join the tack team. When Owens told him he couldn’t make it to after school practices because of his job. The coach personally offered to train him before school started in the morning. Owens agreed and began his training. Owens also accomplished many goals such as; during senior year in high school he tied the world record for the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.4 seconds, and tied it again in the Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. While in Chicago, he also leaped a distance of 24 feet 9 5/8 inches in the broad jump. At the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on May 25, 1935, Jesse set three world records and tied a fourth, all in a span of about 45 minutes! Jesse had an ailing back the entire week leading up to the meet in Ann Arbor. He had fallen down a flight of stairs, and it was questionable whether he would physically be able to participate in the meet. He received treatment right up to race time. Confident that the treatment helped, Jesse persuaded the coach to allow him to run the 100-yard dash. Remarkably, each race timer had clocked him at an official 9.4 seconds, once again tying the world record. This convinced Owens' coach to allow him to participate in his other events. A mere fifteen minutes later, Jesse took his first attempt it the broad jump. Prior to jumping, Jesse put a handkerchief at 26 feet 2˝ inches, the distance of the world record. After such a bold gesture, he soared to a distance of 26 feet 8Ľ inches, shattering the old world record by nearly 6 inches. With so many records, no wonder why he has so much to show the world. “A big part of Hitler’s superiority ideas, was that his Nazis should rule not just because they were better and smarter, but because they were stronger and healthier,” said Owens. By taking part in the games, black Americans would show racists everywhere how wrong they were. Owens and other black Olympians finally decided to go and participate in what was called the “Hitler Olympics.” These games were to be held in Nazi Germany. Hitler wanted to prove to the world that the German “Aryan” people were the dominant race, and that what he was doing by killing all the other races was the right thing to do. So he tried to prove his belief in the Olympics, so the whole world could see it for their own eyes. A majority of the Germans thought that Germany would beat anyone, especially blacks. They were wrong, Owens won four gold medals in the 100-meterdash, the 200 meter dash and the broad jump. He also won a team medal in the 400-meter relay team. Owens even set world records for all of these events, and became the first American in the history of Olympic Track and Field to win four gold medals in a single day. By the end of the Olympics, all of the German fans were cheering for Owens. During the parade of Nations, the event where the teams gather up and walk around the track. It was interesting in the way some of the teams presented themselves to Hitler. He was watching from his booth, which was made specifically for him to sit in and observe the games. If a team gave the Nazi salute, that meant sympathy for the Nazi Germans. There was also a similar salute to the Nazi salute, instead of sticking your arm straight out in front of your chest, it was suppose to be straight to the right and parallel to the ground. This was known as the official Olympic salute. The French team passed with the Olympic salute, the thousands of Germans in the stands mis-understood it for the Nazi salute, and gave a roar of approval. The teams behind the French were the Italians, and they gave the Nazi salute, the crowd also responded with a roar of approval. The Americans put their hats over their hearts, as they passed by Hitler’s booth. The crowd did not like it; another thing they didn’t like about the Americans was their flag hadn’t been dipped down as they passed the booth, but all the other nation’s flags were dipped. In the 100-meter dash there were twelve preliminary rounds, which were all to be ran the first day of competition. In order to advance from there the top two runners of each race will go on to the semi-final. Owens’s was scheduled to run in the last round, which was good for him because it let him see what he would have to race against if he made it to the finals. He ran with his teammate Ralph Metcalfe, he lost in the 1932 Olympics of the 100 meter dash, only by a photo finish. Jesse Owens went on to win against Metcalfe in the race only by a few yards. So once again Metcalfe was defeated by only a little distance. Hitler greeted and praised all other gold medal winners from Germany and Finland. But when the African-Americans Cornelius Johnson and Dave Albritton won first and second in the hight jump, Hitler left the stadium before the U.S. national anthem played. The Olympic committee told Hitler he had to greet all medal winnders or none. After that, Hitler congratulated no one in public. American newspaper headlines blared, “Hitler Ignores Negro Medallists.” Other newspapers expanded the story into “Hitler Snubs Jesse.” The fact that Hitler didn’t congratulate Jesse Owens, didn’t bother Owens one single bit. “We lost no sleep over not being greeted by Adolf Hitler,” said Owens. In the running broad jump, each athlete had three tries to qualify for the event. When Owens took a practice run, judges counted that as his first attempt. On his second try, he stepped over the front edge of the takeoff board from which jumpers leaped into the air. Judges called this a foul. In previous meets, Owens had already jumped twenty-six feet. None of the other jumpers had done that. He was panicking and was nervous that he would not make this final attempt. Luckily, Luz Long, a blond-haired, blue-eyed German jumper, came up to Owens and came to his assistance. Long suggested that Owens place a back foot marker on the foul line. That way, he would not overrun the takeoff board. In the finals, Owens watched Long take his first jump. His jump was the same distance as Owens second jump. The two jumpers kept competing each other for the gold medal. Finally it was down to one jump, Long committed a foul, so that automatically left Owens with the gold medal. Even though it was an automatic win, Owens wanted to make his last jump memorable. So he gave it his all and set a new Olympic and World record of a jump that measured 8.06 meters (26 feet 8 Ľ inches). After he landed, Long was the first one to congratulate him, and walked passed Hitler’s booth, side by side. The next event was the 200-meter, Owens’s easily qualified himself into this event. The only problem he faced, was receiving a good lane, and the track conditions. It had been raining on that track the whole night, and they were made of dirt. So the dirt turned to mud, and that made it difficult to run. There were also no starting blocks, like the ones they have now. The starting blocks back then were holes that were dug into the mud and the athletes placed the feet inside. As well as the previous events, Owens’s won this one, and set a new Olympic and World record to go along with it. The final and last event that Owens’s was going to compete in was the 400-meter relay. The track was 400 meters around, so every 100 meters they would pass the baton. Owens was the leadoff man because of his ability to run the turns. Metcalfe was waiting for Owens to pass him the baton. His powerful, long legs increased the Americans’ lead. Draper was next, he carried the baton around the curve, and Wykoff streaked first across the finish line. The Americans set a world-record time of 39.8 seconds, and finished about 15 yards in front of everyone. The relay team wanted Owens to stand on the top step of the winners’ platform. But Owens demanded that Metcalfe have the honor. Three times before, Metcalfe had barely missed winning a gold medal. Now Owens wanted Metcalfe to enjoy this moment. After you won a medal, you stand on the platform. Each medallist wore a laurel wreath (a symbol of victory) around his head. Winners received their gold, silver, or bronze medals. They were also given a foot-high live oak tree. Owens received four of these, and left one of them to be planted at Ohio State, where he spent his college years. He gave one to his mother, one to Cleveland’s East Technical High School, where he spent his High school years, and kept one for himself. The 1936 Berlin games were the most controversial Olympics. The IOC voted in 1931 to hold the games in Berlin, this was before the IOC members could have known the Nazi movement would soon control the country. When it became known in the early 1930s that under the rule of the Nazis, German Jewish athletes were being barred from the 1936 German team. Since they violated the Olympic charter, man Americans demanded a boycott of the 1936 games. The boycott movement failed because German officials convinced Avery Brundage, head of the United States Olympic committee at the time, that Jewish athletes would be permitted to try out for the German team. In fact, only two Jewish athletes were named to the 1936 German Olympic team, and both were of mixed religious backgrounds. They were ice hockey player Rudi Ball and the 1982 Olympic fencing champion Helene Mayer. This was unfair to the Jews and to the whole world, the Jew’s could’ve had someone that was faster than Owens. The Jew’s could’ve showed Hitler that he was wrong, and that Germans weren’t superior. I think that if Jew’s participated in the 1936 Olympics, a lot of things could’ve been prevented. The world missed out on seeing a lot of unborn talent. When Owens won the Olympics and “defeated” Hitler, he wrote “In the early 1830’s, my ancestors were brought on a boat across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America as slaves for men who felt they had the right to own other men. In August of 1936, I boarded a boat to go back across the Atlantic Ocean to do battle with Adolf Hitler, a man who thought all other men should be slaves to him and his Aryan armies.” Jesse Owens was a national hero when he returned home, despite the fact that he was black there were parades in New York and in other cities that honored him. But even though a black man was an Olympic hero, in many states laws still segregated the blacks and whites. So Owens’s victories at the 1935 Olympics didn’t help all that much to change the course of German History. But it did help push the United States a step closer toward achieving equality for all Americans. At the end of the Olympics Hitler was pleased to see that the German athletes had won more medals and team points than any other country. The Americans were second, the Italians third. Owens left the 1936 Olympics with warm memories. He had met athletes from all over the world. He had made new friends, like Luz Long. The athletes had competed. They also laughed, cried, eaten, and talked together. The Olympic flag fluttered in the wind. Then slowly, it was lowered. The massive Olympic bell echoed. Choirs sang their last notes into the night sky. The Olympic flame flickered and died. “There was not one among us who was not moved. We wept without shame,” said Owens. To sum up, Jesse Owens did have a lot to show the world, and they showed it, through 4 Olympic gold medals. Even though Hitler thought that the German race was to be superior, Jesse Owens proved him wrong by beating the Germans in the 4 events that he competed in. Now, Jesse Owens plays a big role in many of the Olympic athletes lives today. They want to be like Owens, overcoming all racial hate, to win. But even though there were racists everywhere, Owens made friends with Luz Long. Luz came to the assistance of Owens in one of the events, and when Owens won by a penalty that Long committed, Long was the first to congratulate him. This shows how two people overcame the racial hate that was surrounded by these games, and became friends. These were the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and that was the story of Jesse Owens journey through them. Bibliography: Bibliography 1. Josephson, Pinkerton Judith, “Jesse Owens, Track and field Legend,” Enslow Publishers, Inc, 1997. 2. “Olympics Games,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. 3. “The Official Jesse Owens Website,” http://www.cmgww.com/sports/owens/jobio2.html. 4. Laing, Jane, Leonard, Sue, Bankers Christina, Paton, Ian, Sutherland, Mary, T.Wise Michael “Chronicle of the Olympics 1896-1996,” DK publishing, New York, NY, 1996. 5. Greenspan, Bud, “The Olympic Series, Jesse Owens returns to Berlin,” Paramount Pictures, 1988. 6. Beers, F. Burton, “World History Patterns of Civilization,” Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Needham, Massachusetts.

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