Jesse Owens:

Hero of 1936 Berlin Olympics

Premasara EPASINGHE

With the dawn of 1936, just before the olympics 1936, there arose two new future stars in the field of American Athletics.

They were Eulace Peacock from the University of Temple, Philadelpia and one of the greatest in the annals of Athletic history - Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens, at the age of 18, showed promise but he missed the chance to participate in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932.

He was born in 1913, the youngest of ten children. His name was James Cleveland. When the class teacher asked for his name, in Southern accent of USA, he said. "Madam, J.C. Owens. The teacher could gather it. She wrote Jesse Owens.

His first coach was an Irish named Charles Riley. He is the first man to spotted the talents of the kind. Jesse was an outstanding schoolboy Athlete. IN 1928, Olympic Athlete Charley Paddock visited Jesse's school, and the Charley's address motivated Jesse Owens.

In the year 1930, Jesse Owens joined the East High Technical school. In two years time he blossomed into a brilliant athlete. He won three titles - in Inter school meet - Long Jump, 100 and 200 yards. Incidentally, he equalled the 100 yards world record - 9.4 seconds. He became a hero in Cleaveland. In the meantime Ohio State University offered him a scholarship. He faced the problem of colour-bar in Ohio.

In 1938, his coach Riley, handed over this "Uncut Diamond" - Jesse, to Ohio state coach Larry Snyder.

At the Big Ten Championships at Ann Arbot, Jesse broke three world records and equalled the fourth.

In the olympic games in the Long Jump, Jesse Owens cleared 26 ft 8 1/2 inches - 8.13 m, won the 200 yds returning the time of 20.3 secs, 100 in 10.2 secs then in 220 yards low hurdles he won in 22.6 secs, in the two furlong races Owens had also set metric world marks and thus and in effect Jesse Owens broke five (5) new world records and tied the sixth in less than an hour - Fantastic - Unbelievable - Amazing.

When people run, they are essentially bouncing through the air from one leg to another stated Daniel Lieberman - Prof Biological Anthology. How fast people so is their stride length, function of how long the legs are, how power fully they push into stride, how far forward the body jumps and their stride rate which is how fast they can propel their legs forward.

In a hundred metre (100 m) race, Usain Bolt's feet remain on the ground less than his rivals. He covers 40-41 strides, where as other finalist maintain an average of 47 strides. His stride length is about a foot longer than other sprinters.