[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 108 (Monday, July 22, 1996)]
[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

                                 ______
                                 

                           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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