August 9th: The Day Jesse Owens Won the Gold for America...4 Times!

During the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Jesse Owens won his 4th Gold medal, making him the first American to win four medals of any colour in one single Olympiad. Specializing in sprints and long jumping, Owens exceeded expectations of American, and more significantly, African American success. What makes Owens' achievement that bit tiny bit more incredible, is that the 1936 Summer Olympics were intended by Adolf Hitler to be a showcase for Aryan ideals and the talents of white people. So when Jesse Owens won his four medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and the 4x100m relay, you can imagine that must have really shaken the moustache off him.
    A few days prior to his 4th gold, Owens beat German competitor Luz Long at the long jump: another annoyance for Hitler. He was asked to fill in for a Jewish-American relay team member for the 4x100m (as requested by the Berlin 1936 organizers), where he won his 4th gold - talk about a plan back-firing for the Germans! 
   Although Owens did not consider himself discriminated or snubbed by Hitler himself, the Nazi leader voiced his disgust at the American sportsman later. According to Albert Speer in his book Inside the Third Reich, Hitler was 'highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvellous coloured American runner, Jesse Owens' and believed black people had stronger physiques than 'those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games'. Safe to say he'd be spinning in his grave if he saw the line-up of track and field star athletes today. Nevertheless, Jesse Owens' sporting career initiated an explosion of success and the enthusiasm to win, and even managed to prove Hitler's Aryan "supreme" race wrong!