Before Usain Bolt there was Jesse Owens.?At another time and in another land, this man owned the track when he ran and jumped.?
Reuters
Yes, Jesse set the world on fire at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Four gold medals - 100m, 200m, long jump and 4 x 100m relay. It was a slap in the face of Adolf Hitler who believed that German athletes of the Aryan race were of a superior nature. Now here was this 'coloured' man who made them look very silly in their own den.
Before the Games, in 1935, Jesse set three world records and drawing level with one more inside an hour. It has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".
He was fast and pretty much a class above his opponents. Jesse was ranked by ESPN as the sixth greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport.
In 1999 he was on the six-man shortlist for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century.
The man deserved all the accolades he gets and even over 40 years after his death is still hailed as a legend on the track.