caption fullname event death_date death_place birth_place weight imagesize nationality height article_title sport birth_date image college name
jesse owens at the 1936 olympics james cleveland owens sprint , long jump 31 march 1980 tucson , arizona , u.s. oakville , alabama , u.s. 165 lb on 205px american 5 on ft 10 +3 / 4 in cm 3 jesse owens
 track and field september 12 , 1913 jesse owens3.jpg border ohio state university jesse owens
jesse owens

james cleveland `` jesse '' owens -lrb- september 12 , 1913 -- march 31 , 1980 -rrb- was an american track and field athlete and four-time olympic gold medalist .
owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as `` perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history '' .
his achievement of setting three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 big ten track meet has been called `` the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport '' and has never been equaled .
at the 1936 summer olympics in berlin , germany , owens won international fame with four gold medals : 100 meters , 200 meters , long jump , and 4x100 meter relay .
he was the most successful athlete at the games and as such has been credited with `` single-handedly crush hitler 's myth of aryan supremacy . ''
the jesse owens award , usa track and field 's highest accolade for the year 's best track and field athlete , is named after him , and he was ranked by espn as the sixth greatest north american athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport .
