Jesse Owens

Born 1913 · Joined the Ancestors 1980

Fact

Four gold medals at 1936 Berlin Olympics under Hitler's watch

Fact

Set three world records in 45 minutes — greatest single day in track history

Fact

Received Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics — right in front of Adolf Hitler, demolishing the Nazi myth of Aryan racial superiority on the world stage. It remains one of the most significant athletic achievements in history.

Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in a single afternoon at the 1935 Big Ten Championships — a 45-minute stretch widely considered the greatest individual performance in track and field history.

Born in Oakville, Alabama, the grandson of enslaved people, Owens received no congratulations from President Roosevelt upon his return. He was forced to enter his own victory reception at the Waldorf-Astoria through the back door. Despite the injustice, his Berlin performance remains a permanent rebuke to racism.

The battles that count are not the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that is where it is at.

— Jesse Owens