 Owens at the 1936 Summer Olympics, where he won four Olympic gold medals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Cleveland Owens | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | September 12, 1913 Oakville, Alabama, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | March 31, 1980 (aged 66) Tucson, Arizona, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Oak Woods Cemetery Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Ohio State University, Fairmont Junior High School, East Technical High School[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 165 lb (75 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse |
M. Ruth Solomon (m. 1935) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Sprint, Long jump | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 60 yd: 6.1 100 yd: 9.4 100 m: 10.2 200 m: 20.7 220 yd: 20.3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.[3]
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history".[4] He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".[5]
He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited by ESPN with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy".[6]
The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth-greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and the highest-ranked in his sport. In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century.
- ^ "East Technical High School". Cleveland Metro Schools. April 5, 2017.
- ^ Edmondson, Jacqueline (2007). Jesse Owens: A Biography. US: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-313-33988-2. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
- ^ Treasure Trove: A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories. Darya Ganj, New Delhi, India: Evergreen Publications Ltd. 2020. p. 103. ISBN 978-93-5063-700-5.
- ^ Litsky, Frank (1980), "Jesse Owens Dies of Cancer at 66", The New York Times, New York, retrieved March 23, 2014
- ^ Rothschild, Richard (May 24, 2010). "Greatest 45 minutes ever in sports". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
- ^ Schwartz, Larry (2000). "Owens Pierced a Myth". ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from the original on July 6, 2000.