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00:30Jesse Owens was the son of a sharecropper, and the grandson of a slave.
00:35But he had the world's attention at the 1936 Berlin Olympics,
00:38when he left Hitler's Aryan supremacy theories in the dust,
00:42and collected four individual gold medals.
00:45Owens was christened James Cleveland when he was born in Alabama in 1913.
00:50But a school teacher gave him the name he is best known as,
00:53when she asked his name,
00:55and mistakenly entered the initials JC as Jesse in the school rule book.
01:01Owens was still at high school when he equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash.
01:06At Ohio State University, he became known as the Buckeye Bullet,
01:10and won a record eight championships.
01:12However, as an African-American student, he was forced to live off campus,
01:17and America's racial laws also forbade him to eat out with his white teammates
01:21when the athletics team traveled around the United States.
01:24But the determined athlete could not be held back.
01:27And on May 25, 1935, he astounded America by equaling the world record for the 100-yard dash,
01:34and setting world records in the long jump, the 220-yard dash, and the 220-yard low hurdles.
01:40This set him up as a force to be reckoned with at the 1936 Olympics.
01:46Adolf Hitler planned to use the Berlin Olympics to showcase the superiority of Germany's Aryan people.
01:52But Owens' extraordinary achievements put paid to that,
01:56and by the end of the games, the Germans themselves were cheering him on.
02:01German athlete Lutz Long even gave him some friendly advice, which helped him win the long jump.
02:07It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler, Owens later said.
02:11You can melt down all the medals and cups I have,
02:14and there wouldn't be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Lutz Long.
02:21Although it was commonly believed that Hitler refused to acknowledge the black champion,
02:25Owens said the leader rose and waved at him as he went past following one of his wins.
02:30In fact, Owens said, the only leader to snub him was his own,
02:34the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
02:37who didn't even send him a congratulatory telegram.
02:43After the games, Owens returned to the States to follow up on some potential endorsement deals,
02:49rather than competing in Sweden with the rest of the team.
02:52Sporting authorities revoked his amateur status, ending his athletics career.
02:58But Owens was unrepentant, as he did not receive any sporting scholarships,
03:02and needed to support his young family.
03:05Unfortunately, prejudice made it impossible for a black athlete to make a living from endorsements,
03:10so Owens turned to professional running, taking part in stunts such as racing a horse in Cuba.
03:16He won by 20 yards.
03:19Owens later said, people say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse,
03:24but what was I supposed to do?
03:26I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.
03:31The great sprinter struggled to get by when his running days were over,
03:35going into the dry cleaning business, and even working as a gas station attendant.
03:39But in the late 1960s, he started to carve a name for himself as a goodwill ambassador,
03:45spreading the message that with determination, anyone could achieve greatness.
03:49He participated in events such as the opening of the American Embassy in the Ivory Coast in 1971,
03:55where the street was renamed in his honour.
03:59The mayor of Abidjan said calling the street Rue Jesse Owens celebrated the athlete's achievements,
04:05and commemorated his contribution to disproving Nazi racialist theory.
04:10In 1976, US President Gerald Ford awarded him a Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.
04:17Four years later, following Owens' death, President Jimmy Carter paid tribute.
04:22Perhaps no athlete better symbolised the human struggle against tyranny, poverty and racial bigotry, Carter said.
04:29His work with young athletes, as an unofficial ambassador overseas,
04:33and a spokesman for freedom are a rich legacy to his fellow Americans.
04:52To be continued
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