I always loved running - it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power.

Jesse Owens

Athletes

Jesse Owens

Born in Alabama in 1913, Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, silently defying Hitler's racial supremacy ideology through athletic excellence. As an African American in an era of pervasive racial discrimination, he proved human equality through the act of running - an indomitable sprinter whose legacy opened the path for all athlete-activists who followed.

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