MacFormat 1996 July/macformat-039.iso/DATABASE/BODY/OWENS.TXT

Text File | 1996-01-29 | 7.3 KB | 151 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]

1.5
All heroes depend on Zeitgeist, but the immortals must have
that and more. James Cleveland Owens is such an immortal.
Owens's first imprint on the history of athletics was made at
Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1935. "He had a very bad back
injury," said his coach Larry Snyder. "We almost had to carry
him from the bus. I told him to try it out in the 100 yards,
but to withdraw if he felt any pain.'' Owens "tried out'' with a
100-yard run of 9.4 seconds, equalling the world record.
Within an hour he had broken another four world records
(220 yards, 200 metres, 220-yard hurdles, 200-metre
hurdles) and was facing a crisp, specially prepared grass long
jump runway. He took only one leap, cutting sand at 26ft 8
and a half in., a record that was to stand for over 20 years.
He made 12 appearances in the Berlin Olympic Games and
was 12 times victorious, taking four gold medals. Owens
reappeared in 1956 as Eisenhower's  special envoy to the
Melbourne Olympics. The Munich Olympic committee used
him to publicise the 1972 Games. It is, however, Leni
Riefenstahl's magnificent 1936 Olympic film that has
captured forever the most lasting impressions of Owens.
Crouching like a panther before his record long jump, gulping
nervously at the start of the 100 metres, his legs a black blur
as he passes Mariani in the sprint relay, he is speed, he is
grace, he is beauty. It is thus that he will be remembered
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2.2
Who should be recognized as the world's greatest athlete?
This is a question that usually leads to considerable
argument, but the man who generally receives even more
support than A. Shrubb, P. J. Nurmi, or E. Zatopek is the
United States sprinter, J. C. Owens.

His renown is still so fresh that it is surprising to recollect
that it was 21 years ago to-day when at Ann Arbor,
Michigan, he beat five world records and equalled a sixth in a
single afternoon's competition. His performance in the long
jump on that occasion is still unbeaten in spite of the rapid
progress made in nearly every event

Apart from holding the long jump record at 26ft. 81/4in., he
is still joint holder, with five others, of the 100 metres record
at 10.2sec., and a member of the United States Olympic team
that set the present 4 x 100 metres relay record. He had the
spring to high jump 6ft. at 15, the speed for the sprints, the
timing for the long jump, and the suppleness for the low
hurdles. Add to these qualities a keen competitive spirit and
a modest disposition and it seems that here was the perfect
athlete.

In 1932, aged 18, he ran 100 metres with wind assistance in
10.3sec. but did not qualify for the Olympic team, and in
1933, his last year of high school, he ran 100 yards in 9.4sec.,
220 yards in 20.7sec. and long jumped 24ft. 111/4in.

Owens used his freshman year at Ohio State University to
gain experience, being beaten in the American 100 metres
championship by R. H. Metcalfe, runner-up in both the 1932
and 1936 Olympic Games.  Although Owens also lost in the
championship of 1935 to another outstanding coloured
sprinter, E. Peacock, this was an extremely successful year
for him.

At five meetings he had quadruple victories and at the
Western Conference championships at Ann Arbor on May 25
he had his finest day, with world records in the 220 yards
(and 200 metres), 220 yards (and 200 metres) hurdles, and
long jump, equalling the time of 9.4sec. in the 100 yards.

The long jump is graphically described by the American
coach J. K. Docherty in his classic Modern Track and Field, for
Docherty was the organizer of the meeting. He tells how it
was boldly announced that Owens would try for a world's
record, and a white handkerchief was placed in the pit at
26ft.

The hushed crowd were amazed as Owens, in his first and
only trial, simply appeared to run off the board and, with
only a swing of the lead leg, landed well beyond the
handkerchief. Owens went on to a splendid climax at the
1936 Olympic Games, but this, surely, was his greatest single
achievement.
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2.5
The United States and Germany again carried off most of the
honours in the Stadium to-day, and yet another huge crowd
watched more brilliant running and jumping in a few hours
than most of them are likely to see in the rest of their
lifetime. The amazing Jesse Owens and the scarcely less
amazing Miss Helen Stephens once more made light of
records, and yet there were others who did nearly the same
thing. The only difference was that Owens and Miss Stephens
specialized in world records and their imitators had to rest
content with the beating or equalizing of mere Olympic
records.

The standards began to soar so high that it was almost a
relief when a return to normality occurred in the 400 metres
hurdles and the heats of the 5,000 metres, in which Great
Britain was able to breathe again because each of her three
representatives qualified for another run. There even was a
glimpse of hope again when F. Close ran second to G. Hockert,
the latest of the Finnish champions, and in another and faster
run heat P.D. Ward ran third in front of the great Lehtinen.
A.V. Reeve's fifth in a previous race was enough, but no
more. Still, it was something that the British long-distance
men should have run so intelligently and bravely among
such a host of fine runners.

The first heats of the 200 metres seemed to have established
beyond all doubt the overwhelming superiority of the
supersprinters from the United States. Jesse Owens, of course,
ran home alone in his preliminary heat, and one nearly
added that, of course, he beat an Olympic record in the doing.
The fact that just previously he had qualified - a word which
sounds a trifle ridiculous in his case - in the long jump made
no difference.  Then there was the victory in another heat of
R.R. Packard, who equalled Olympic figures, and of M.M.
Robinson, a negro, who won by yards, easing up, in 21.6sec.
W. Van Beveren, of Holland, did 21.4 in his heat, and it was
worthy of note, but no more, that L.P. Orr, the Canadian, had
run second to Owens in 21.6.

All this hardly promised what occurred in the subsequent
heats.  Owens, to be sure, again beat the Olympic record in
front of H.M. MacPhee, and E. Grimbeck and Robinson
equalled it when beating M.B. Osendarp by a tenth of a
second, but Orr, of Canada, then made an effort which kept
the issue a good deal more open.  Orr also equalled the
Olympic record in winning his heat, and the Empire at any
rate still had a likely man in the race. A. Pennington, of Great
Britain, who had pulled a muscle, did not run in the second
round.

Perhaps one had to thank the German long jumper, L.Long,
for extracting from Owens another superb effort. The leaping
in the qualifying and semi-final pool had been impressive
enough. Owens himself had well beaten the Olympic record at
7.87 metres, but Long and several others had offered a
serious challenge, and it became really exciting in the final
pool. Tajima, the Japanese champion, who had had no luck
previously, now just passed the Olympic best. More thrilling
still, Long equalled Owens's great leap amid a wave of
cheering. Owens was left to make the last jump of all, and
with true dramatic effect he reached 8.06 metres, or 26ft. 5
1/4in. This, one learned just in time, was short of Owens's
wonder leap of 26ft. 81/2in. in America, which, a week ago,
was given official recognition as the latest world record.