Jesse Owens’s story is that of courage and defiance.

When Owens hit a ‘four’

Jesse Owens’s story is that of courage and defiance. The 1936 Olympics were held under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. The German dictator viewed African-Americans as inferior and chastised the USA for fielding these ‘non-humans.’ Despite the endless racial epithets and the constant presence of the red and black swastika, Owens wasn’t bogged down. He went on to win four gold medals. The first gold was in the 100 metres, which he won with a time of 10.3 seconds. The second came in long jump, where he fouled on his first two attempts. One was just a practice run where he continued down the runway into the pit, but German officials didn’t buy it and counted it as a jump. Top German long jumper Luz Long suggested Owens play it safe and jump a few inches before the usual take-off spot. He took his advice and qualified for the finals, where he won the gold with a leap of 25 feet and six inches. And Long was there to congratulate him. “It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler,” Owens would later say. “You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”   The third gold was in the 200-metre dash, where he set an Olympic record with a time of 20.7 seconds. Gold number four was in the 4x100 relay race, which USA won in a world record time of 39.8 seconds and Owens’s magical Olympics came to a close.