Jesse Owens

The hero of the 1936 Berlin Olympics — won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler, directly challenging Nazi ideology of racial supremacy.

James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913, the son of sharecroppers, and became the most celebrated track and field athlete of the 20th century. He won 4 Olympic gold medals at the Berlin Games in 1936 — 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay — humiliating Adolf Hitler's narrative of Aryan athletic supremacy in front of 100,000 spectators at the Reich Sports Field. His long jump world record of 8.13 metres, set at the Ann Arbor Big Ten championships in May 1935, stood for 25 years. In the same meeting he set 3 world records and equalled a 4th in 45 minutes — the greatest single athletic performance in history at a single event. His 100m personal best of 10.2 seconds and 200m personal best of 20.7 seconds — hand-timed on a curved track — were extraordinary for the era. His relationship with German long jumper Luz Long — Long advising Owens on his approach run before Owens beat him to gold — became one of sport's most celebrated symbols of sportsmanship. He returned from Berlin to no ticker-tape parade — President Roosevelt never sent a telegram or invited him to the White House. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1990. He died of lung cancer in 1980 aged 66.

Broke racial barriers and Hitler's Aryan supremacy myth

• Olympic Gold 100m, 200m, Long Jump, 4x100m Berlin 1936
• Set 6 world records in 45 minutes (Ann Arbor 1935)
• IAAF Athlete of the Century (runner-up)
• James E. Sullivan Award 1935
• Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously) 1990