|
by Ron Fimrite
Jesse Owens of the U.S. had already won the 100 meters and had run two Olympic-record-breaking heats in the 200 at the Berlin Games when, inexplicably, he had trouble qualifying in what may have been his best event—the long jump. Owens was the world-record holder at 26'8-1/4", a standard that would last more than 25 years. But under the baleful gaze of Adolph Hitler, he fouled on his first two jumps. Owens had one chance remaining to qualify for the finals. The qualifying distance, 23'5-1/2", was no problem for him; hitting the takeoff board legally was.
Long's advice may have cost him the long jump gold medal but won him a friend in Owens.
photograph by
Owens was silently berating himself alongside the jumping pit when he was approached by another competitor, Germany's Luz Long. Tall, blond and blue-eyed, Long was the personification of the pure Aryan that Hitler and his henchmen thought of as the Übermensch. In reality, Long shared none of the Führer's crackpot racial notions, and in the African-American Owens he saw only a fellow athlete in need of counsel.
Not only speaking flawless English but also spicing it with American slang, Long first introduced himself and then asked Owens, "What's eating you? You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed." Long suggested that Owens draw a line a few inches in front of the board and use that mark as his takeoff point. Owens thanked him for the advice and qualified easily on his next jump.
In the finals later that day, Owens reached 25'5-1/2" and 25'10" on his first two jumps. Long tied him at 25'10" on his fifth jump. Spurred on by his new friend's competitiveness, Owens then cleared 26 feet on his fifth jump and on his final effort reached 26'5-1/2", the winning leap and an Olympic record. (The long jump final will be held tonight at Olympic Stadium.) Owens won two more gold medals, with an Olympic record 20.7 in the 200 and by running the first leg on the U.S. 4x100 relay team, which set a world record (39.8 seconds).
Owens's feat of winning four gold medals in men's track and field was not equaled until 1984, when another U.S. sprinter-jumper, Carl Lewis, won gold medals in the same four events as Owens had. But Owens's achievements had consequences far beyond the arena, for they effectively debunked the myth of Aryan superiority—right in front of Hitler. In fact, by themselves, the 10 African-Americans on the U.S. track team outscored all other national teams, winning eight gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
Though he undoubtedly might have liked to, the Nazi leader did not—as myth has it—snub the great black American athlete. Two days before the long jump competition, in a fit of national pride, Hitler had summoned the Games' first gold medal winner, German shot-putter Hans Woellke, to his box to offer him personal congratulations. He also congratulated two more gold medalists, a German and a Finn, before he left Olympic Stadium while the competition was still going on. Hitler was not present when another African-American, Cornelius Johnson, won the high jump at 6'8". So if anyone was snubbed, it was Johnson, not Owens.
That evening Hitler was advised by International Olympic Committee president Count Henri de Baillet Latour that it was not the Führer's function as patron of the Games to congratulate any of the winners, and that if he chose to honor one he must honor all. Hitler elected henceforth to congratulate no one, at least publicly. "Anyway," Owens said, "I didn't come to Berlin to shake his hand."
After the long jump competition, in which Long held on to win the silver, Owens and Long walked arm-in-arm away from the landing pit. They did not see each other after the Berlin Games, but they continued to correspond. After Long was killed in Italy during World War II, Owens dutifully kept in touch with his family.
Before he died of lung cancer at 66 in 1980, Owens wrote: "You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long." It was one memorable occasion when the Olympic spirit triumphed over tawdry international politics.
|
|
SI Olympic Dailies
|
