The 1936 Olympic Games
A job as an honorary page for legislators in the Ohio General Assembly nearly sidelined Jesse Owens from the 1936 Olympic Games. He had taken a job as a freight elevator operator in the State House in 1933 while he attended The Ohio State University and trained as part of the university's track team. By the summer of 1935, he had been appointed as an honorary page for a legislative committee, which paid more and carried more prestige than operating the elevator. The legislature didn't meet during the summer, though, so Owens was free to train and compete. This, however, raised the suspicions of the American Athletic Union, whose members thought the new job, for which Owens had no specific duties, looked like an illegal athletic scholarship. Owens had to appear in Cleveland to explain the situation, with OSU officials testifying on his behalf. The Northeastern Ohio AAU Eligibility Committee decided in his favor, and in the fall of 1935, Owens returned the $159 he had earned from the job.
The next July, Owens participated at the Olympic tryout finals in New York, winning all three of his events. He and the 381 members of the U.S. Olympic Team then boarded the SS Manhattan on July 15 for its voyage to Europe. Along the way, Owens, who had been getting a significant amount of press for his track achievements, signed hundreds of autographs for fellow shipmates. After nine days of rough seas and stormy weather, the ship docked at the German port of Bremerhaven; the athletes were in Berlin enjoying the opening ceremonies barely a week later on August 1.
Participating as a sprinter at the Olympic Summer Games of 1936 was a far different
experience than it is today. There were no starting blocks, runners had to use trowels to
dig their own starting holes, their shoes were made of heavy leather, and the track was composed
of cinder, which turned uneven and messy when it rained. That is what it was doing intermittenly
during the first week of Olympiad XI, and still Jesse Owens managed to win four Olympic gold
medals.
Along the way, he tied the world record of 10.3 seconds in the 100-meter dash; set new
Olympic records of 20.7 seconds in the 200-meter race, and 26 feet, 5 1/4 inches in the long jump;
and he ran the first leg in the finals of the 400-meter relay, an event in which his team set new
world and Olympic records of 39.8 seconds.
His triumps before a worldwide audience were serendipitous; Germany's leader, Adolph Hitler, had been widely condemned before the Games for his anti-Semitic policies. He had toned down his rhetoric for the event, but still openly anticipated a great showing of Aryan athletic supremacy. With his victories in track and field, Owens had proved the Nazi dictator's racist theories wrong, and in doing so, had become not only an Olympic gold medal winner but an American hero.
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