Hello Hive friends, it's Saturday and that means we are in the Freecompliments Sports Saturdays. Today I want to tell you an exciting story that is well known but that new generations may not know.
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens showed the world how stupid the message Adolf Hitler sent to the world could be. Years later he would demonstrate things much worse than his stupidity.
Jesse Owens competed in those games like few athletes have done throughout history, winning gold in the 100-meter dash, long jump, 200-meter dash and 4x100. But Owens' main feat was to leave Hitler's racism in the deepest humiliation.
The jumping competition turned out to be very special when Luz Long, a German competitor and European record holder in the discipline, helped and supported Owens, his biggest rival in the competition. This of course did not go down well with the Nazi regime.
Luz Long had a brief long-distance friendship with Owens before dying in combat in Sicily in 1943. But their friendship transcended him being Jesse Owens best man at the wedding of his son Kai Long.
Jesse Owens and Luz Long showed that neither race nor skin color determines a man's destiny.
