Jesse Owens

Owens, Jesse (1913–80), U.S. African-American athlete. He once broke 3 world records at a single college meet (1935). At the 1936 Berlin Olympics Owens won 4 gold medals (100-meter, 200-meter, 4 × 400 relay, and long jump) breaking olympic records in both the 200-meter and long jump competitions. Owens' record-setting achievements proved to be an embarrassment to German dictator Adolf Hitler, who had hoped to use the Games to prove his theory of Aryan German supremacy.