Jesse Owens

Oct 03, 2013, 02:25 AM

Jesse Owens Hello listeners, this is a podcast for the Project teen voices online from Prepa 1, and in this episode qe are going to talk about the life of Jesse Owens, he was once the world’s fastest runner. Now the fastest runner is Usain Bolt. In 1936, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be in the team. Jesse Owens won the highest award, the gold medal, in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two hundred meter run he set new Olympic records. And as a part of a four man team, he helped set a new world record for the four hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Gold Medals in a single Olympics. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however offered him a permanent job. For many years after the Olympic Games, Jesse survived as the best he could. He was born in 1913 on a farm in the south of Alabama. He was the youngest of 13 children. His parents didn’t own the farm, and they used to earn little money in small jobs. Owens always remembered the white man who helped change his life. In 1970, Jesse wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called “Black think” Jesse Owens died of cancer in 1980. His family operates the Jesse Owens Foundation. It provides financial aid and support for young people help them reach their goals in life.