sse 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 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 on...
