Jesse Owens
Biografi om Jesse Owens, mannen som fikk Hitler til å hoppe av sinne.
Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama on september 12. His family was very poor and his father worked as a sharecropper. Jesse´s original name was James Cleveland Owens, but when his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, his name became Jesse after a misunderstanding of his initials J.C.. In his childhood he was a thin and frail boy, that almost died of pneumonia. What saved him was a coach that noticed the boy´s poor health.
He encouraged Jesse to run, in order to strengthen his lungs. But Jesse had to work after school to help support his family, and could therefore not run. Eventually the coach persuaded him to come to scholl an hour early and run with him. The weak little boy became a champion athlete.
Despite being one of few blacks who attended his school he was popular and was elected student council president. After his great achievements on the track he was offered lots of scholarships, but rejected all of them because he didn´t think it was right that he had a lot of money while his family still was poor. Not before a school offered his father a state job did he enrole. But even now he refused the scholarship offers. Instead he paid his education by waiting tables, work at a library and operating an elevator. He is most famous for his four goldmedals in the 1936 Olympics in Munich. He won Long-jump, 200-,and 100 metre races together with USA´s team gold in the 400metre relay race.All in the presence of a furious Adolf Hitler, who wanted to see the Aryans win. But a more unknown part of his acchievements is that when he attented a college-championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here he broke three and tied a fourth world record during 45 minutes. What made Owens success even more impressing was that he competed with a very painful back injury.
Owens was named "sports ambassador" by President Eisenhower, and travelled around in the USA, speeching about what sports can do to improve racial problemes and bring people together.
Owens died of lung-cancer 31. March 77 years old.
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