[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

JESSE OWENS' LEGACY STANDS: A SPECIAL SALUTE TO OLYMPIC COMPETITORS

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HON. LOUIS STOKES

of ohio

in the house of representatives

Monday, July 22, 1996

Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, a few days ago, the games of the 1996 summer
Olympics began. The city of Atlanta is hosting the biggest Olympics
ever with more than 10,000 athletes from 197 countries gathered for the
centennial games. This includes an Olympic-record 4,000 women athletes
who are competing in Atlanta. The 16 days of Olympic competition
promises to be exciting from start to finish.
I am proud that the 1996 Olympics include outstanding athletes from
the great State of Ohio. Our State is represented in many of the
Olympic events, including gymnastics, swimming, track and field,
diving, archery, and team handball, just to name a few. I take pride in
saluting these outstanding athletes as they strive for victory in the
Olympic arena. I also salute the Olympic team coaches and assistant
coaches who were selected from the State of Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, as the Olympic games get underway, many articles are
being written about previous Olympic champions. I read with interest an
article which appeared in the July 15, 1996, edition of USA Today. In
that article it is reported that the sports staff was asked to vote on
the greatest moments in Olympic history. They were unanimous in
selecting Jesse Owens' 1936 performance as the one that best signifies
the Olympic spirit.
We are reminded that 60 years ago, the world watched as Jesse Owens
became the first person in the history of the Olympics to capture four
gold medals. In accomplishing this feat, Jesse Owens, the son of a
sharecropper and grandson of a slave, shattered Adolf Hitler's hopes
for Aryan supremacy in the games. Owens also captured the hearts of the
world with his stunning performance and remarkable grace.
Jesse Owens died in 1980 at the age of 66. Throughout his life, he
continued to exhibit the type of spirit that made him an Olympic hero
and American legend. Jesse Owens is perhaps the greatest athlete who
ever lived. I am proud that this Olympic hero was reared and attended
school in my congressional district. I am also proud to be the author
of legislation which awarded Congress' highest honor, the Congressional
Gold Medal, to Jesse Owens posthumously.
Mr. Speaker, I want to share the USA Today article which is entitled,
``Owens' Legacy Stands,'' with my colleagues and others throughout the
Nation. I applaud the athletes who are gathered in Atlanta for the
summer games. It is my hope that they will be inspired by Jesse Owens
and his achievements. As we celebrate the centennial Olympics, we pay
tribute to the memory of this great American.

[From USA Today, July 15, 1996]

Owens' Legacy Stands

his supreme statement still inspires in '96

(By Gary Mihoces)

Adolf Hitler planned a 400,000-seat stadium in Germany to
host the Olympics for all time, according to his chief
architect. At the 1936 Berlin Games, he settled for a
110,000-seat stadium to showcase his belief in Aryan
supremacy.
But Jesse Owens made his statement at those '36 Games with
four gold medals in the sprints and long jump, a track and
field feat matched only by Carl Lewis during the boycotted
1984 Games.
With 16 days of Olympic competition about to begin in
Atlanta, USA TODAY staffers selected 16 moments best
signifying the Olympic spirit.
Owens' performance was rated the ultimate. His legacy--not
Hitler's giant stadium--looms over every Olympics.
``I don't think I've been anywhere (that) anybody who is a
sports fan has not heard of Jesse Owens,'' says Harrison
Dillard, who was inspired by Owens to become an Olympic track
champion himself in 1948 and 1952. ``It's not only what he
did, but the circumstances under which he did it, right there
in front of Hitler.''
Owens, son of an Alabama sharecropper and grandson of a
slave, represented the USA when blacks were barred from major
pro sports at home. He competed in a Berlin where Hitler's
brand of racial superiority was official policy.
Hitler already had stripped Jews of citizenship, but anti-
Jewish signs were taken down during the Games. Nazi
newspapers downplayed their references to the ``black
auxiliaries'' of the U.S. team.
Owens had been a sensation at Ohio State, where in a 1935
meet he broke three world records and tied another.
``He was only 23. He was very focused on why he was there,
to do the best he could in his events,'' says Owens'
daughter, Marlene Rankin. ``I don't think he was very
conscious of what was happening politically.''
One popular story was that Hitler snubbed Owens by refusing
to shake his hand. According to the book The Nazi Olympics by
Richard Mandell, the International Olympic Committee sent
word to Hitler after the first day's competition that ``he
should congratulate all or none'' of the medalists and that
Hitler chose the latter.
So when Owens won the 100 on the second day, he wasn't
greeted by Hitler, ``nor was any other winner on that or any
of the following days,'' Mandell writes.
Owens later said, ``It was all right with me. I didn't go
to Berlin to shake hands with him anyway.''
But Owens was among 10 black members of the U.S. track and
field team who combined for 13 medals.
That ``highly annoyed'' Hitler, former Nazi architect
Albert Speer wrote in his memoir Inside the Third Reich.
Speer said Hitler decided black athletes ``must be excluded
from future games.''
Speer also designed the giant stadium Hitler had planned
for Nuremberg to host the Games for ``all time to come.''
Owens' second gold came in the long jump. But he fouled on
his first two qualifying jumps and had one more. German
jumper Luz Long reportedly suggested Owens place a towel
behind the takeoff board to use as his starting point to
avoid fouling.
That story has been refuted by many, but Owens easily made
his third qualifying jump and won the final with an Olympic-
record jump of 26 feet, 5\1/4\ inches. Long hurried to
congratulate Owens and they left the field arm in arm,
Mandell writes. Long was later killed in the war.
On Aug. 5, Owens won the 200 meters in an Olympic-record
20.7 seconds. He expected that to be the end of his
competition, but he and Ralph Metcalfe were added to the
four-by-100-meter relay team to replace Marty Glickman and
Sam Stoller.
Glickman and Stoller were Jewish. There were reports they
were bumped off the relay team because U.S. officials bowed
to pressures from the Nazis. There were other claims that it
was simply a matter of ensuring the victory.
Owens was lead runner on the relay team, which set a world
record.
Just after his Olympic victories, Owens ran afoul of the
Amateur Athletic Union. When he declined to continue in a
European tour the AAU had arranged to offset Olympic
expenses, he was suspended from U.S. amateur competition.
In the years after the Olympics, his ventures ranged from
running exhibition races against horses to a failed dry
cleaning business. However, he later found a niche as a
public speaker and goodwill ambassador until his death in
1980 at age 66 of lung cancer.
Rankin is executive director of the Chicago-based Jesse
Owens Foundation, which has several scholarship programs.
``He always believed that the youth of any country is its
greatest resource,'' she says.
Dillard says Owens later worked at a recreation center in
Cleveland. ``He had a rough time, particularly early on,''
says Dillard. ``The endorsements were not there, and high-
profile companies were not using African-Americans.''
Commercial use of Owens' name or likeness now is controlled
by CMG Worldwide of Indianapolis, under agreement with Owens'
heirs.
But Rankin says Owens never despaired that he wasn't born
in an era of more lucrative rewards.
``Money didn't mean an awful lot to him,'' she says. ``He
liked what it would buy . . . But he was not extravagant. He
loved the sport, the discipline of training and the challenge
to do it better. Not better than someone else, just best for
yourself. And his best just happened to be better than
most.''

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