James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist.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". His achievement of setting three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport" and has never been equaled. At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Owens won international fame with four gold medals: 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4x100 meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the games and as such has been credited with "single-handedly crush[ing] Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy."The Jesse Owens Award, USA Track and Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete, is named after him, and he was ranked by ESPN as the sixth greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport.
If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard.
2
I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.
3
The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.
4
For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.
5
Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need.
6
One chance is all you need.
7
Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.
8
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.
9
The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.
10
A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.
11
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
12
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
13
[When asked about how he felt years after Adolf Hitler refused to shake his hand at the Olympics] I'm here. He's not.
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Fact
1
Owens was a Black American athlete. In the 1936 Olympics, when Hitler was in attendance, Owens had just completed the 4x100 meter relay and won his fourth gold medal. Hitler refused to shake his hand and people thought Owens was subhuman because he was Black; both of these were heard around the world, but even the most racist Germans were amazed by Owens and word of it slipped through the cracks.
2
Owens won the 100, 200, 400 and 1500m races.
3
Ironically, he was not intended to be part of the relay team in the 1936 Olympic Games. He and Ralph Metcalfe replaced Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, the only Jewish members of the 1936 Olympic track team.
4
Owens once worked for exploitation titan Kroger Babb, traveling the road with the movie Mom and Dad (1945) with an all-black crew serving African American theaters. Owens would deliver a lecture on "sex hygiene" during an intermission.
5
The runner he beat in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Summer Olympics was Jackie Robinson's brother, Matthew "Mack" Robinson, who also beat the world record at the time while taking the silver medal.
6
Was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans.
7
Became famous for beating horses in a 100-yard dash - but there was a trick to it: They used a starting gun, which would startle the horse long enough to give Owens enough of a head start to win.
8
Was invited back to Berlin in the 1960s, to the same stadium where he'd won his Olympic medals, and was given a hero's welcome. The mayor addressed him: "The last time you were here, Adolf Hitler refused to shake your hand. Today, I'm proud to give you both of mine." Owens and the mayor embraced, then Owens ran one last ceremonial lap around the track, with the crowd cheering.
9
During the 1968 Mexico City games, he was called in to talk to the black athletes to try to ease the tension created after the banishment of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. After he met with the athletes, he was seen leaving the meeting in tears because he felt that he was unable to reach the more radical athletes who saw him as nothing more than an "Uncle Tom".
10
Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, 1983 (charter member).
11
Even though he defeated the top German athletes in the 1936 Olympics, the German people liked him. Crowds of 110,000 cheered him in Berlin's glittering Olympic Stadium - fans sought his autograph and picture when he walked the streets. In 1982, Berlin renamed the avenue leading to the Olympic stadium "Jesse Owens Allee" (Parkway) in his honor. His widow and family attended the dedication ceremony as guests of the German government.
12
He won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The World's Fastest Men
2012
Documentary short
The Olympic Series: Golden Moments 1920-2002
2003
Video documentary
Himself
The Mike Douglas Show
1972-1977
TV Series
Himself - Olympic Medalist / Himself - Olympics Athlete / Himself - Olympics Champion
From Montreal, the Bob Hope Olympic Benefit
1976
TV Movie
Himself
The Way It Was
1976
TV Series
Himself
The David Frost Show
1970-1972
TV Series
Himself
Sport, sport, sport
1970
Documentary
Himself (uncredited)
The Joey Bishop Show
1968
TV Series
Himself
The Ed Sullivan Show
1956-1967
TV Series
Himself - Audience Bow / Himself
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
1966
TV Movie documentary
Host / Narrator
Valentine's Day
1964
TV Series
Himself
What's My Line?
1960
TV Series
Himself - Mystery Guest
This Is Your Life
1960
TV Series
Himself
Person to Person
1955
TV Series documentary
Himself
I've Got a Secret
1954
TV Series
Himself
The Olympic Games of 1948
1948
Documentary
Himself
Olympic Cavalcade
1948
Documentary
Himself (as Jessie Owens)
Kings of the Olympics
1948
Documentary
Himself
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations
1938
Documentary
Himself (uncredited)
Berlin 1936: Games of the XI Olympiad
1936
TV Mini-Series
Himself
High Lights of the 1936 Olympics Berlin
1936
Documentary short
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
A Football Life
2016
TV Series
Himself
Hitler's Olympics
2016
TV Movie documentary
Himself (uncredited)
The Book Thief
2013
Himself
Glickman
2013
TV Movie documentary
American Experience
2004-2012
TV Series documentary
Himself
Third Reich: The Rise & Fall
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself
Naked Science
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself - 1936 Olympic Games
Salute
2008
Documentary
Himself
The Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World
2005
TV Movie documentary
Himself (uncredited)
La neuvième
2004
TV Movie documentary
Himself (uncredited)
The True Story of Seabiscuit
2003
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Fists of Freedom: The Story of the '68 Summer Games
1999
Documentary
Himself
The Century: America's Time
1999
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - U.S. Olympic Athlete
The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History
1999
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
100 Years of Olympic Glory
1996
TV Movie documentary
Himself (uncredited)
The Journey of the African-American Athlete
1996
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Ghosts of Mississippi
1996
Himself - Racing in Berlin (uncredited)
Mo' Funny: Black Comedy in America
1993
TV Special documentary
Himself
Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl
1993
Documentary
Himself
The Great Depression
1993
TV Series documentary
Himself
When It Was a Game
1991
TV Movie documentary
Himself
That's Black Entertainment
1990
Documentary
Himself
The 1930's: Music, Memories & Milestones
1988
Video documentary
Himself - Competes at Berlin Olympics
Genocide
1982
Documentary
Himself
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
1975
Documentary
Himself
Swastika
1974
Documentary
Himself
Days of Our Years
1950
Documentary
Himself
The Negro Soldier
1944
Documentary short
Himself - 1936 Olympic Games (uncredited)
Charlie Chan at the Olympics
1937
Himself (uncredited)
Known for movies
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin (1966) as Host / Narrator
Kings of the Olympics (1948) as Himself
Olympic Cavalcade (1948) as Himself
From Montreal, the Bob Hope Olympic Benefit (1976) as Himself
$17 Million
