Jesse Owens

USAMen

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting Olympic records in each event. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history. Owens excelled in events like short sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He won four events, set five world records and tied another—all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".

He won four NCAA titles in both 1935 and 1936, bringing his total to eight—an unparalleled achievement that remains unmatched to this day. He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited by ESPN with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy". The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete.

In a 1950 Associated Press poll, Owens was voted the greatest track and field athlete for the first half of the century. In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. That same year, he was ranked the sixth greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport by ESPN.