Jesse Owens’ grandson said Thursday that his grandfather’s track and field legend’s successes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics were a “thumb in the eye” for Adolf Hitler.
In commemoration of July 4 and the start of the Olympic Games in Paris in three weeks, Owens’ name is again in the news as one of the greatest American Olympians of all time.
Owens’ grandson, Stuart Owen Rankin, told CNN how his grandfather’s four gold medals were important for much more than just sports.
The 1936 Olympic Games took place in the German capital, while Hitler had already sowed terror in the Nazi state a few years earlier.
Hitler wanted to demonstrate the dominance of the ‘Aryan’ race of athletes, the white, blond, blue-eyed athletes whom the dictator considered superior.
Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, against the backdrop of Nazi Germany
Owens’ grandson Stuart Owen Rankin recently detailed his grandfather’s legacy
Owens found ways to defeat Nazi Germany and the rest of the world so that he is still relevant in the sport today.
“My grandfather’s legacy continues to flourish,” Rankin told CNN. “When people find out, and it’s not often that I talk about it openly, but eventually people find out, like by watching interviews like this, their reaction is always positive.”
“Their reaction is one that fills me with pride. Again, their reaction speaks to the accomplishments of my grandfather and the enduring quality of what he did in ’36 and sort of the timelessness of those accomplishments,” Rankin continued.
Rankin also discussed Owens’ friendship with his German competitor Luz Long.
According to Rankin, Long gave Owens advice on how to improve his long jump technique before the event in which the two competed against each other.
Long died while serving in the German army during World War II, but the Owens and Long families still keep in touch.
“What emerged from that was a bond, a brotherhood, a connection between two world-class athletes on the highest stage of their particular event or sport,” Rankin told CNN.