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THE STORY FOR THIS WEEK

Jessie Owens was born September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama, U.S.; he died March 31, 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jessie was an American track-and-field athlete, who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His four Olympic victories were a blow to Adolph Hitler’s intention to use the Games to demonstrate Aryan superiority.

As a student in a Cleveland, Ohio, high school, Owens won three events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. In one day, May 25, 1935, while competing for Ohio State University (Columbus) in a Western (later Big Ten) Conference track-and-field meet at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Owens equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.4 sec) and broke the world records for the 220-yard dash (20.3 sec), the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 sec), and the long jump (8.13 metres [26.67 feet]).

Owens’s performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics has become legend, both for his brilliant gold-medal efforts in the 100-metre run (10.3 sec, an Olympic record), the 200-metre run (20.7 sec, a world record), the long jump (8.06 metres [26.4 feet]), and the 4 100-metre relay (39.8 sec) and for events away from the track.

One popular tale that arose from Owens’s victories was that of the “snub,” the notion that Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens because he was an African American. In truth, by the second day of competition, when Owens won the 100-metre final, Hitler had decided to no longer publicly congratulate any of the athletes. The previous day the International Olympic Committee president, angry that Hitler had publicly congratulated only a few German and Finnish winners before leaving the stadium after the German competitors were eliminated from the day’s final event, insisted that the German chancellor congratulate all or none of the victors. Unaware of the situation, American papers reported the “snub,” and the myth grew over the years.

Despite the politically charged atmosphere of the Berlin Games, Owens was adored by the German public, and it was German long jumper Carl Ludwig (“Luz”) Long who aided Owens through a bad start in the long jump competition. Owens was flustered to learn that what he had thought was a practice jump had been counted as his first attempt. Unsettled, he foot-faulted the second attempt. Before Owens’s last jump, Long suggested that the American place a towel in front of the take-off board. Leaping from that point, Owens qualified for the finals, eventually beating Long (later his close friend) for the gold.

SAVAGE COMMENTS.

Would you be prepared to spend a lifetime of training for 10 seconds?

The problem is that we never know how close we are to our goals until we reach them. Jessie did not let anything stop him, even discrimination and being publicly snubbed. Another athlete who he was competing against was prepared to help him even though this athlete might lose to him and eventually did. This is the real meaning of sport and of life. Help those you can along the way. You may not win but what you gain will be immeasurable.

QUOTE

A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.
Jesse Owens

STORY FOR THIS WEEK

Jessie Owens was born September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama, U.S.; he died March 31, 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jessie was an American track-and-field athlete, who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His four Olympic victories were a blow to Adolph Hitler’s intention to use the Games to demonstrate Aryan superiority.

As a student in a Cleveland, Ohio, high school, Owens won three events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. In one day, May 25, 1935, while competing for Ohio State University (Columbus) in a Western (later Big Ten) Conference track-and-field meet at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Owens equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.4 sec) and broke the world records for the 220-yard dash (20.3 sec), the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 sec), and the long jump (8.13 metres [26.67 feet]).

Owens’s performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics has become legend, both for his brilliant gold-medal efforts in the 100-metre run (10.3 sec, an Olympic record), the 200-metre run (20.7 sec, a world record), the long jump (8.06 metres [26.4 feet]), and the 4 100-metre relay (39.8 sec) and for events away from the track.

One popular tale that arose from Owens’s victories was that of the “snub,” the notion that Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens because he was an African American. In truth, by the second day of competition, when Owens won the 100-metre final, Hitler had decided to no longer publicly congratulate any of the athletes. The previous day the International Olympic Committee president, angry that Hitler had publicly congratulated only a few German and Finnish winners before leaving the stadium after the German competitors were eliminated from the day’s final event, insisted that the German chancellor congratulate all or none of the victors. Unaware of the situation, American papers reported the “snub,” and the myth grew over the years.

Despite the politically charged atmosphere of the Berlin Games, Owens was adored by the German public, and it was German long jumper Carl Ludwig (“Luz”) Long who aided Owens through a bad start in the long jump competition. Owens was flustered to learn that what he had thought was a practice jump had been counted as his first attempt. Unsettled, he foot-faulted the second attempt. Before Owens’s last jump, Long suggested that the American place a towel in front of the take-off board. Leaping from that point, Owens qualified for the finals, eventually beating Long (later his close friend) for the gold.

SAVAGE COMMENTS.

Would you be prepared to spend a lifetime of training for 10 seconds?

The problem is that we never know how close we are to our goals until we reach them. Jessie did not let anything stop him, even discrimination and being publicly snubbed. Another athlete who he was competing against was prepared to help him even though this athlete might lose to him and eventually did. This is the real meaning of sport and of life. Help those you can along the way. You may not win but what you gain will be immeasurable.

Quote:

My mother taught me very early to believe I could acience any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.

Wilma Rudolph

Story for this week

On September 7, 1960, Wilma Rudolph made Olympic history by becoming the first woman, not to mention the first African-American woman, to win three gold medals.  Her accomplishments in track and field—taking first place in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash and in the 4×100 relay—opened the door for women and girls in previously all-male track and field events.  Graceful, fast and slender, the Italian press called her La Gazzella—the gazelle.

Born in segregated Clarksville, Tennessee, on June 23, 1940, the twentieth of twenty-two children, she weighed just four-and-a-half pounds.  Her parents were hardworking but quite poor.

Wilma’s mother nursed her sickly child through the measles, chicken pox, double pneumonia and scarlet fever.  When Wilma’s left foot and leg drew up and turned in, the diagnosis of polio seemed final.  Doctors gave the little girl no hope of ever walking without braces or crutches, if at all.

But her mother didn’t accept the doctors’ opinions.

Twice a week for two years she drove Wilma the fifty miles to Nashville for treatment at Meharry Hospital, part of Fisk University, a black college.  The doctors showed Mrs. Rudolph how to exercise Wilma’s muscles, and she in turn taught the therapies to Wilma’s brothers and sisters.

Everyone helped, and by age eight Wilma was not only walking without crutches and braces, but playing basketball in the backyard.

Wilma joined her junior-high basketball team, but the coach didn’t put her in a single game.  By her sophomore year in high school Wilma started as guard.  Her performance caught the attention of Ed Temple, coach of the Tennessee State University Tigerbells, who offered her a full scholarship when she graduated.

Besides guiding the basketball team to a championship Wilma also excelled at track and field, earning a spot in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where the sixteen-year-old brought home a bronze medal in the 4×4 relay.

But it was her outstanding accomplishments in Rome that brought Rudolph fame and influence.   Despite all the obstacles she had to overcome she won 3 gold medals - an awesome achievement

Excerpted from ThroughYourBody.com

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. Abraham Lincoln

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. George Edward Woodberry

THIS WEEKS STORY

The setbacks of Abraham Lincoln were devastating. He failed in business in 1831.

He was defeated for state legislature in 1832.

He tried another business in ’33. It failed.

His fiancé died in 1835.

He had a nervous breakdown in ’36.

In ’43 he ran for Congress and was defeated.

He tried again in ’48 and was defeated again.

He tried running for the Senate in ’55. He lost.

The next year he ran for vice president and lost.

In ’59 he ran for the Senate again and was again defeated.

FINALLY IN 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth president of the United States.

COMMENT

PASSION, BELIEF and SELF-TRUST are the fuel for a positive attitude that causes us to be totally COMMITTED to a goal. GIVING UP IS NOT AN OPTION.