BEFORE the start of World War II, German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler wanted to show the world why he believed his Aryan people were the “superior race” by holding the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936.

He intended to prove that Germans and those in the German region were faster and stronger than all others, including blacks, by collecting the best medal count for that year’s Games.

Alabaman-born black athlete Jesse Owens was to rain on his parade, however. In a spectacular six-day performance, August 3 to 9, Owens won four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m and long jump events. A world record was set in the 4x 00m race and Owen’s four medals in those events have only been matched by Carl Lewis during the Olympic Games of 1984.

Hitler was extremely upset and embarrassed over these results and famously decided to only shake the hands of the German winners. He later claimed that since African’s bodies are more primitive than white’s then they will have an advantage in the Games.

During the Games, Owens was one of the few blacks who was allowed to travel and stay in the same hotel as whites, but upon his return to the States, he suffered racial prejudice again.

American President Franklin D Roosevelt famously refused to invite him to the White House after his triumph because he was afraid that those in the racist Southern America would not vote for him if he did.