In One Shot: How black athlete Owens beat Hitler

The 1936 Olympic Games took place in Germany. The Nazi rule and Adolf Hitler’s plan to use the games to spread his ideas were the background of Berlin Olympics.

In this edition of In One Shot series, Mediamax Sport tells about the athlete who single-handedly beat Hitler and his ideology, wining the Olympic gold.

Many countries spoke against Berlin as the host, but the International Olympic Committee didn’t change the decision. The games, which were more resembling of a theatre that year, went out of their way to glorify Hitler. The Committee admitted its mistake and apologized to all athletes only after WW2.

The 1936 U.S. team included black and Jewish athletes, a choice that didn’t have Nazi Germany’s favor. However, the U.S. representatives made no changes and brought the team to Berlin untouched.

Jesse Owens, a black athlete, was one of the U.S. team members. Owens was unstoppable. He went on to win four gold medals in the 1936 games, earning the first place in 100m, 200m, and 4x100 relay race, and long jump.

His achievements broke Nazis’ intention to prove their beliefs in superiority of “Aryan race” and prevent people of colour from winning medals.

Witnesses tell that Hitler followed the competitions with great attention and admired the German athletes. The first time the smile vanished from his face was when Owens won his first medal. Hitler didn’t shake Owens’s hand during the award ceremony and only approached the Germany representative.

The Olympic Committee appealed and suggesting shaking hands either with everyone or no one. Hitler chose the second option.

However, winning four gold medals wasn’t the only thing the black athlete achieved in Berlin 1936 Olympics. Until our days, it’s noted frequently that no one humiliated the Nazi leader as much as Jesse Owens.