Blog posts mentioning Jesse Owens
4 good links
- Owens Pierced a Myth
ESPN's "Sports Century" essay on the man and his successes
- Jesse Owens Official Site
Commercially-produced site, with a bio and some swell photos
- The Jesse Owens Foundation
Official site of the non-profit organization he founded
- Memorable Olympic Moments: Jesse Owens
InfoPlease remembers the Olympics of 1936
Jesse Owens Biography
Jesse Owens is remembered for one stunning week in 1936, when he won four track and field gold medals at a single Olympics. The Summer Games that year were held in Berlin, where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler seemed determined to display the superiority of the German "Aryan" race. Owens, an African-American, put that notion to rest with victories in the 100- and 200-meter dash, the broad jump and the 4x100-meter relay. The performance made him both an Olympic hero and a lasting symbol of black pride. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Owens the prestigious Medal of Freedom.
Extra credit:
Owens got the name "Jesse" when a teacher misunderstood his initials, J.C... He was the first American to win four track and field medals in one Olympics... His father was a sharecropper and his grandfather a slave... Owens was a star sprinter at Ohio State University... The 1936 Olympics also featured a more controversial Ohioan, Stella Walsh.
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Something in Common with Jesse Owens
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