Reader’s Digest Australia & New Zealand – May 2019

May• 2019 | 57

ILLUSTRATIONS:

TALLULAH

FONTAINE

I

t was thesummerof1936.The

Olympic Gameswerebeingheld

in Berlin.BecauseAdolfHitler

insisted hiscountry’sathleteswere

members of a‘masterrace’, national-

istic feelings wereatanall-timehigh.

I wasn’t tooworriedaboutallthis.

I’d trained andsweatedforsixyears

with the Gamesinmind.WhileI was

going over [toGermany]ontheboat,

all I could thinkaboutwastaking

home one ortwoofthosegoldmed-

als. I particularlyhadmyeyeonthe

running broadjump.Ayearbefore,as

a sophomoreatOhioStateUniversity,

I’d set the worldrecordof8.13metres.

Everyone kindofexpectedmetowin

that event hands-down.

I was in fora surprise.Whenthe

time came forthebroad-jumptrials,

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I was startled to see a tall boy hitting

the pit at almost 7.9 metres on his

practise leaps! He turned out to be a

German named Luz Long. I was told

that Hitler had kept him under

wraps, evidently hoping to win the

jump with him.

I guessed that if Long won, it would

add some support to the Nazis’

Aryan-superiority theory. After all, I

am black. A little hot under the collar

about Hitler’s ways, I was determined

to go out there and really show Der

Führer and his master race who was

superior and who wasn’t.

An angry athlete is an athlete who

will make mistakes, as any coach will

tell you. I was no exception. On the

first of my three qualifying jumps, I

le ape d f rom s e ver a l c ent i met re s

BY JESSEOWENS

My Greatest

OLYMPIC PRIZE