Early life

James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913. In the early 1920s, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in search of better opportunities.

Jesse studied at Fairmount Junior High School. He later became a track star in high school. In 1928 Jesse set his first track records in the high jump and the running broad jump, or long jump. Toward the end of his senior year, he broke three records at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago, Illinois. Owens enrolled at Ohio State University in September 1933 and had a remarkable track career there.

The Berlin triumph

The 1936 Olympic Games were held in a tense atmosphere. The dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party had been in power in Germany since 1933. They saw the Olympics as an opportunity to advance their belief in the superiority of the Aryan, or the white race. The sports field was draped in Nazi banners and symbols.

The Nazi aim was defeated when the African American Jesse Owens and his teammates won 12 men's track-and-field gold medals. Owens himself won three individual gold medals and a fourth in the 4 x 100–meter relay.

Owens tied the Olympic record for the 100-meter run (10.3 seconds). He broke Olympic and other world records in the 200-meter race (20.7 seconds) and the running broad jump (8.06 meters). He also ran the final leg for the record-breaking 4 x 100–meter relay team (39.8 seconds). For a time, Owens either held alone or shared the world records for all sprint distances recognized by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

Retirement

After his Olympic triumph, Owens graduated from college in 1937 and worked for a number of years for the Illinois Athletic Commission. He left the commission in 1955.

Owens then got involved in guidance activities for young boys. He also made goodwill visits to India and the Far East for the U.S. Department of State. Owens died in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 31, 1980.