Letters of Note
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Above: Luz Long and Jesse Owens |
To win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games is astonishing enough;
however, to do so as a black person in 1936, at a tense
Olympic Games hosted by Adolf Hitler, is almost beyond belief. Yet
Jesse Owens did exactly that, somehow managing to ignore talk of
Aryan superiority
to take gold in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, and long jump, all in the
space of a few days. He also made a good friend in the form of German
athlete
Luz Long,
the blond-haired, blue-eyed, long jump rival who swapped training tips
with Owens and openly congratulated him after his final jump, in full
view of Hitler.
Having bonded so well at the Games, Owens and Long kept in touch by
mail. Below is Long's last letter, written during WWII from North Africa
where he was stationed with the German Army and later killed in action.
It reached Owens a year after it was sent. Years later, as per Long's
request, Owens met and became firm friends with his son, Karl. He also
went on to serve as best man at his wedding.
The Last Letter
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