He was world-class-and not just for his age. In other words, at fifteen years old, in cheap shoes and street clothes, Jesse Owens was more than just a strong local talent. ‘“No eighth-grader can run that fast.” Eleven flat. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics ( Amazon) is an important read, not just for the history of the modern Olympics, but for the history of race relations in the United States and fascism abroad. And a myth was born that Hitler had snubbed Owens by failing to congratulate him.” Two Jewish sprinters were denied the chance to compete for the United States at the last possible moment, most likely out of misguided deference to the Nazi hosts. At the games themselves the subplots and intrigue continued: Owens was befriended by a German rival, broad jumper Luz Long, who, legend has it, helped Owens win the gold medal at his own expense. A boycott was afoot, based on reports of Nazi hostility to Jews, but was thwarted by the president of the American Olympic Committee, who dismissed the actions of the Third Reich as irrelevant. From the start, American participation in the 1936 games was controversial. But it is also the intimate and complex tale of the courage of one remarkable man.ĭrawing on unprecedented access to the Owens family, previously unpublished interviews, and exhaustive archival research, Jeremy Schaap transports us to Nazi Germany to weave this dramatic tale.

The story of Jesse Owens at the 1936 games is that of a high-profile athlete giving a perfomance that transcends sports. In 1936, against a backdrop of swastikas flying and a storm troopers goose-stepping, an African-American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four Olympic gold medals and single-handedly crushed Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy. “From the ESPN national correspondent and author of the New York Times bestseller Cinderella Man comes the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of a defining moment in sports and world history. In case you don’t know who Jesse Owens was, he was the Usain Bolt of his time.

Today’s book brings us all the way back to 1936, when the rumblings of another world war were already starting. This week I’m going to highlight a few books and movies about the Olympics that you may or may not heard of. Winter or summer, it doesn’t matter, I just want to see the excellence in sport. I’ve even held Olympic parties in the past on the day of the opening ceremonies. Every two years, for roughly two and a half weeks, I am glued to my TV, watching Team USA.

Triumph the untold story of jesse owens