Why jesse owens is famous

At different points, he worked in a grocery store, a shoe repair shop, and as a loader of freight cars. In his spare time after work and school, Owens excelled at track and field events and was on the track team in junior high school. He became a star athlete and tied the world record in the one hundred-yard dash while he was still in high school. Because of Owens' success on the track, a number of universities recruited him.

He decided to attend The Ohio State University. Owens lived a separate life at Ohio State because of the racial discrimination that was common at the time.

He was not permitted to live on campus with white athletes. When the track and field team traveled, Owens had to eat in the African-American sections of restaurants and stay in hotels that would accept black people.

Often, this meant that Owens was separated from his teammates while eating and sleeping. Ohio State also did not provide him with a scholarship. Owens worked odd jobs for the university to pay his way through school. Owens also set new world marks in the yard dash and in the yard low hurdles. In all, Owens competed in 42 events that year, winning them all. Hitler lambasted America for including Black athletes on its Olympic roster. But it was the African American participants who helped cement America's success at the Olympic Games.

In all, the United States won 11 gold medals, six of them by Black athletes. Owens was easily the most dominant athlete to compete. He captured four gold medals the meter, the long jump, the meter and the meter relay and broke two Olympic records along the way. After Owens won the meter event, a furious Hitler stormed out of the stadium, though some reports indicate that Hitler later congratulated the athlete on his success. While Owens helped the United States triumph at the games, his return home was not met with the kind of fanfare one might expect.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt failed to meet with Owens and congratulate him, as was typical for champions. The athlete wouldn't be properly recognized until when President Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The mild-mannered Owens seemed not the least bit surprised by his home country's hypocrisy. For any other use, please contact archives osu.

All terms of use must be observed. Copyright Information Details and Exceptions. Owens was the most dominate athlete to compete at the Olympic Games. He won four gold medals and broke two Olympic records. His record for the world broad jump lasted 25 years.