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For social, political and purely athletic reasons, Jesse Owens’ performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics stands alone.
When he won gold in the 100-and 200-meter runs, the long jump and the 4×400 relay, Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four golds in a single Olympics, a feat matched by Carl Lewis in 1984.
When this black sharecropper’s son from Alabama did it in front of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, he exploded the Nazi myth of white (Aryan) supremacy in the Fuhrer’s face.