Jesse Owens and Luz Long’s 24-carat friendship

MUMBAI: Jesse Owens — World record holder in 100m, 200m and the long jump — was favourite to win multiple gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games. He ended winning

MUMBAI: Jesse Owens — World record holder in 100m, 200m and the long jump — was favourite to win multiple gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games. He ended winning four gold medals. But he almost didn’t make it to the long jump final after two foul jumps in the qualifying session. It was his great German rival Luz Long — the embodiment of Adolf Hitler’s Aryan propaganda — that helped the American win the gold. Watching Owens’ foul attempts, Long advised him to start his run-up a foot further away to register a legal jump. Owens later said: “You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”

HT Image