ostly in Junior High.
As a young teenager he began breaking high school
records.Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was born September 12, 1913.
As a child Jesse was very unhealthy yet he became one
of the most recognizable black athletes.
He had difficulty breathing and many cases of pneumonia.
He also had poor food, clothes and housing.
Jesse Owens started competing in athletics
mostly in Junior High.
As a young teenager he began breaking high school
records.
Two weeks before the big ten, Jesse hurt his tailbone.
At the beginning of the first race the pain “miraculously
disappeared.”
He set and tied four world records in only 45 minutes.
At 3:15 p.m., Jesse Owens ran the 100 yard dash.
He ran it in 9.4 seconds tying the world record.
Jesse Owens competed in the long jump
at 3:25 p.m.
He jumped 26-8 ¼ setting a world record that lasted 25 years.
At
3:34 p.m. Jesse Owens competed in the 220 yard dash.
He ra
At
4:00
p.m. Jesse Owens competed in the 220 yard low hurdles.
He did it 22.6 seconds, becoming the first person to beat the 23 second
world record.
Jesse Owens is very
well known for his performance in the 1936
Olympics. The Nazis believed that
America was letting “non-humans like Owens and other negro athletes,”
compete.
In Owens’ first and only Olympics he almost didn’t qualify for the
long jump because he fouled on his first two jumps.
Owens ended up qualifying and in the finals won the gold.
He also won the 100 and 200 meter races and took part in the winning
American 400 meter relay team.
He also set records in the long jump and 200 meter race.
On August 5, Owens ran what was to be his last race of the Olympics.
Then, Owens and Metcalfe replaced Marty Glickman and Sam Stroller on the
U.S.A. track team.
They were replaced because they were Jewish and the Nazis felt it
humiliating and unjust to let them compete after African Americans had already
won medals.
During Jesse Owens’ whole career he set a total of seven world records.
In 1976 President Ford presented Jesse Owens a medal of freedom.
A medal of freedom was the highest award a U.S. citizen could receive.
Jesse Owens was a heavy smoker.
Owens died of lung cancer, on March 31, 1980 at the age of 66, in Tucson,
Arizona.
For more information, visit:
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