IC Vietri di Potenza

Jesse Owens

Olympic Games

Berlin 1936

In 1931, the International Olympic Committee granted the Olympic Games to Berlin without knowing that Adolf Hitler was to have power to the country two years after.

In 1936, the Nazis were already in command of Germany and take advantage of the occasion to promote their racist philosophy

German sports imagery in the 1930s promoted the myth of Aryan racial superiority and physical power. Artists idealized athletes' well-developed muscle tone and heroic strength and accentuated so-called Aryan facial features — blue eyes and blond hair..

Therefore on the völkisch principle we cannot admit that one race is equal to another. By recognizing that they are different, the völkisch concept separates mankind into races of superior and inferior quality (…) For in a world which would be composed of mongrels and negroids all ideals of human beauty and nobility and all hopes of an idealized future for our humanity would be lost forever.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 2 Ch. 1

Jesse Owens was the living proof of Hitler’s huge, crazy mistake

Jesse Owens won the Gold Medal in the 100m, 200m,

long jump, and 4x100m relay.

This feat would not be accomplished again until Carl Lewis would Gold-medal in the same four events in

1984.

In the finals of long jump Owens competed with a German athlete, Luz Long. Owens won and Long embraced him.Hitler must have gone crazy watching their embrace. Racist propaganda was completely beaten by this gesture. The two men were friends until Long died in World War II

You could melt all the medals I've won, but you could never reproduce the 24-carat friendship that sprang up between me and

Luz Long on the platform of Berlin. (Jesse Owens) -

Jesse Owens had the highest civilian honor, the Medal of

Freedom at the White House in 1976.

Owens died on March 31, 1980 and President Carter added his voice to the tributes that poured in from around the world. "Perhaps no athlete better symbolized the human struggle against tyranny, poverty and racial bigotry.

A decade after his death, President Bush awarded Owens the Congressional Medal of Honor. Bush called his victories in Berlin "an unrivaled athletic triumph, but more than that, a triumph for all humanity."