Born in Alabama on September 12, 1913, Jesse Owens was the youngest of 10 children, and as the son of a sharecropper, money was always tight. Food and clothing were not guaranteed, and medical costs were too high. In fact, Owens later told reporters that Owens started working while still in middle school, but luckily there was an athletics coach who allowed him to train in the morning because running was his real hobby. In the Ohio Interscholastic Finals, he won 75 of the 79 events before equaling the world record for the 100-yard dash.
Because of his excellence as an athlete, he entered the Track and Field team at Ohio State University, where he never won a scholarship, although he won no less than eight individual NCA titles there. On May 25, 1935, Owens achieved real results in the sport for the first time at a "Big Ten" conference, where he set four world records in 45 minutes. Everyone knows that Owens is a rare athlete to date.
With such talent, attending the upcoming Olympics should have been a breeze, but two years before Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany, the IOC had already chosen Berlin to host the 1936 Olympics. In 1933, the Nazis banned all "non-Aryans" from participating in organized sports, but they inexplicably decided to stick to their promise to host an event whose main mission was to bring athletes from all over the world together. In fact, Hitler hoped to prove through the Olympics that he believed that the Aryans were physically superior to other peoples.
As you can imagine, the situation was tense for Olympic athletes of color, but Owens was determined to prove he could handle it. In terms of his residency, he still had to live in hotels that were only black, to eat in restaurants that were only allowed to live blacks, and he was very good at fighting in the field of racism. He competed in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4X10 relays, winning gold medals in every event while setting a world record.
Despite his extraordinary achievements, Owens received little public respect. He later said: "Although I was not invited to shake hands with Hitler, I was not invited to the White House to shake hands with the president. "Immediately after his victory in Germany, coach Avery Brundage put him on a tough schedule with little to no pay. When Owens fired Brendaji to strike alone, his former manager persuaded the American Automobile Association to revoke Owens' membership, effectively expelling him from the pro circuit forever. Owens only took part in the final race a few months after winning the Olympic title.
Owens' athletic career was in jeopardy, supporting himself by working as a cleaner at a gas station and eventually opening a dry cleaner. Occasionally, he would race against amateurs and even animals, and although he never made much money from his talents, he did give inspiring speeches, guide and guide young people to work hard, persevered in such an environment, won four gold medals on his own strength, he was a benchmark worthy of everyone's respect, and his history of perseverance deserved our praise and learning. He was even more of a hero of his time.
He died of lung cancer on March 31, 1980, at the age of 66.