Athlete: Jesse Owens In The 1936 Olympics

Can you imagine embarrassing the infamous Adolf Hitler in front of the whole world? Jesse Owens did that in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was not an easy road for him to get there, but he did it by putting enough effort and hard work forward. Jesse Owens was able to overcome racial judgment by surviving a poverty struck childhood, training hard in school, and by winning the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Jessie Owens, who was a famous African American sprinter, fought back against Hitler’s racial stereotypes of Blacks by winning four gold medals and becoming one of the worlds most successful athletes. Owens challenged Nazi ideology that African Americans were inferior because he used his skill to win four gold medals, which disproved the idea that African Americans were unsuccessful athletes. The biggest blow to Nazi ideology about African Americans was that the German crowd treated Jessie Owens as a hero whereby they chanted and cheered his name whenever he entered the arena, which was reported to embarrass Hitler. In addition, Andre Kabos who was a Jewish-Hungarian fencer almost gave up his fencing career due to anti-Jewish propaganda in Hungary and was pressured by Jewish organizations to boycott the German games. However, Kabos chose to have one last run and performed in the 1936 Berlin games where he had his best performance ever and used his Jewish pride to strengthen his motivation to beat a German fencer and won a Gold medal in fencing. Kabos completely destroyed the Nazi ideology that Jews were the inferior race because not only did he win a gold medal, but he single handily beat a bloody German! Later during the Holocaust, Kabos was forced into a labour camp where he died, but to his grave he must have died with Jewish pride because he defeated a German right in front of Hitler’s eye’s.

This picture exemplifies how the Olympic games influenced the youth to get involved in olympic sport, like boxing. Hitler goal was to use the Olympics to gain support from the Germans, showcase his military, and to strengthen soldiers, along with future soldiers, in order to increase Nazi Germany’s sovereignty. Germany was embarrassed and seen as weak after World War One; however, by increasing the sovereignty through nationalism, in Germany, Hitler was convinced that the humiliation from the outcome of WW1 would never occur

Initially, the Nazi’s propaganda minister convinced Hitler it was a great opportunity to warp people’s minds with their propaganda. Hitler also thought it was a great chance to prove his theory of Aryan racial superiority. But, he was proven wrong when the African American Jesse Owens won four gold medals (Gabi Mezger) . Finally, Berlin was actually the decided host before Hitler came to power but they still supported them just as much. The Nazi’s didn’t host an Olympics just for fun, there were actually many political reasons behind the event.

As Hitler rose to power, the Nazis used many strategies to oppress the Jews, a few of which were propaganda, mistreatment, and dehumanization. Subsequently, the Nazis started hatred toward the Jews in Germany with targeted propaganda. Hitler used the 1936 Olympics to proclaim the greatness of the Aryan race. The 100,000 Hail Hitler news article clearly shows this: "A little girl in blue, her fair

Jesse Owens was an Olympic international gold medalist who achieved what no other Olympian before him had accomplished.

Jesse Owens Jessie Owens is an inspirational black figure to many. He managed to get into university for his track and field career. Also, he won many gold medals at the Olympics. Lastly, he managed to prove Hitler's idea of superiority wrong. Jesse Owens impacted Black history through his success at Ohio State University, winning four Olympic gold medals, and proving Hitler wrong.

“Although I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.” - Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens was an African American athlete that won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics at Berlin during the Nazi regime. The 1936 Olympics was quite controversial because of the Nazi’s and their policies for minority groups like the Jews. It was so controversial that the United states nearly pulled out of the international spectacle. Germany wanted to use the Olympics to showcase their country. But Jesse Owens took much of the attention away due to his athletic display. Even with his legendary performance in Berlin, it didn’t change much of his status in the US as a black man. In the

Later, Owens made not only his first appearance at the Olympic games, but an amazing one. He won 5 Olympic Gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and despite the growing white superiority thoughts from the Nazi’s, his success and influences caused him to

When Jesse Owens ran the two hundred and twenty-yard dash he was off with the gun and streaked home almost fifth-teen yards ahead of the second man in 20.3 seconds, taking three-tenths of a second from the world record (bigten.org).” Despite minor set-backs in college Jesse Owens came back and defeated physical and mental battles to win big in the Big Ten Finals. Due to the short yet impactful forty-five minutes of Jesse Owens’ life he was known as the most famous track athlete of all time. Jesse Owens was such an amazing athlete that he was asked

Many African americans were strengthened by his performance, “his series of victories scored a moral victory for black athletes” (“Encyclopedia of World Biography” 1). Jesse Owens’s perseverance through the games inspired many black athletes to compete more and more in their life. Jesse’s series of victories also weakened Hitler’s belief in Aryan supremacy, for example, “At the 1936 Berlin Olympics his [Jesse Owens’s] gold medals demolished Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy.” (Edelson 1). This shows that Jesse also had a lasting impression on Hitler and his beliefs.

“Owens believed blacks should fight for power through economic, not political means” (Taha). Even though he was an activist during the Civil Rights movement, most people know of Jesse Owens for his athletic accomplishments. He

As I’d learned long ago … the only victory that counts is the one over yourself." Said Owens. Despite of the circumstances of the Holocaust and segregation occurring back home, Owen’s managed to claim 4 gold medals, the most any Olympian won in Berlin and any African American athlete at this time. Adolf Hitler wished to host the games to prove his theory that the Aryan race was superior of all others. This theory was far from correct and Jesse Owens was the one to prove Hitler wrong.

That day he won four events, set three world records, and he tied a fourth record all in forty-five minutes. He tied the world record by running the one hundred yard dash in nine point four-seconds. He then broke a world record by jumping twenty-six feet eight and one quarter inches in the long jump. Later, he finished the two hundred twenty yard dash in twenty point three-seconds for another world record. That same day, he broke a third world record by finishing the two hundred twenty yard low hurdle race in twenty-two point six seconds.(Shwartz 1) He was so outstanding at track and field, that during his junior year of college he won every single one of the forty-two events in which he competed. Three of those events were Olympic trials for the 1936 Olympics (“About Jesse Owens” 3) guarantying that he would be going to Berlin to compete for a medal.

The Olympic Games are a set of friendly competitions that bring countries from all around the world together, but many social, political, and economic problems in the past and present including racial and sexual discrimination and apartheid have prevented the Olympic Games from fulfilling their promise to bring countries together.