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Jesse Owens
Sprinter; four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The fastest man in Berlin, on the day the myth of racial supremacy needed him most.
The rise
Born James Cleveland Owens on 12 September 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, the grandson of enslaved people, he set three world records in forty-five minutes at the 1935 Big Ten meet. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics he won four gold medals under the gaze of the Nazi regime.