Alfonso González Quesada
Unprecedented technical means, organizational perfection and lavish infrastructure made the 1936 games a resounding success for Hitler.But, despite the fact that Germany dismissed the United States in the first position of the medallero, the star of the games was Jesse Owens, the black athlete who, with his four golds, questioned the racial supremacy Aria Aria Aria.
Since the American team is installed in Berlin, journalists and photographers focus their attention on Owens.No one has forgotten his feat of the previous year in Michigan, when in an afternoon he pulverized three world records.Of the many Owens photographs during those games, three are of interest to this story, and all correspond to the length competition.In them he shares prominence with another jumper, the German Ludwig Long, better known as Luz Long.
Lee tambiénThe second snapshot captures the affectionate congratulation of Long to Owens, just after the jump of this that sealed his victory.The Aryan has been the first to hug and strengthen the black hand before the one hundred thousand souls that crowd the stadium.Long's effusivity does not go unnoticed to Hitler, who has followed the development of the final attentive.An exciting and matched duel until Owens, in his last jump, has flown beyond eight meters, to set an Olympic record that no one will overcome until the 1960s.
The third photograph portrays our protagonists after the medal delivery ceremony.They look at them as they walk from the arm to the changing rooms.Shortly before, at the top of the podium, Owens listened to his country's anthem, while Long did the Nazi greeting.
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The three photographs reveal an unusual communion between rivals, although they exemplify the spirit of concord and respect between nations and races, as typical of the Olympic movement as oblivious to the leaders of the country that has organized those games.
When the Olympic flame goes out in Berlin, both athletes will not see each other again.The fate that awaits them is very disparate.Back home, the African -American will soon verify that racial segregation makes it difficult to.This will happen, for example, at the Waldorf Astoria, the luxurious New York hotel where the reception is celebrated in honor of the American medalists and who has to access through a service door.
Owens abandons athletics.It is not lucky in business, and for a time it survives wearing its feline speed in ridiculous shows against dogs and horses.Much luck runs Long, who, when World War II broke out, is mobilized and sent to Sicily, where he dies in 1943 at thirty years of age.
Lee tambiénThat action aroused in him a deep admiration for the German.Owens explains that, despite the few days that coincided in Berlin, a sincere friendship emerged among themthrough epistolary contact.In the last letter he received, during the war, Owens says that his friend sensed death and asked him to finish the conflict, look for his son to tell him what kind of man his father had been.
Owens' revelations, made more than a quarter of a century after Berlin games contributed to reinterpreting both Long's role in the competition and its tragic end.Thus, a story was built in which the German, guided by its sportsmanship and oblivious to any racial prejudice, would have doubly challenged the Nazi regime, helping which was considered a lower race and contributing to deprive the third Reich of a triumph of a triumphOlympic.
Two offenses serious enough for Long to lose his favor, fell out of favor and was sent to the front when the war broke out, where his death would be an act of revenge executed by the allies, but warmed by the Nazis.
Lee tambiénOn the other hand, there are certain inconsistencies in the Owens story.The most striking has to do with the correspondence that would have exchanged with Long.Not only because there is no record of the German letter, but because since the war was unleashed, the possibility of its shipment was more than remote, if one takes into account that the Hitler regime prohibited all postal contact with hostile countries to the Nazi Germany.
In 2015 Kai-Heinrich Long published a biography about his father.The fruit of its conscientious work of compilation of documents and testimonies allows the territories of truth and legend.Thus, the work ensures that the Pierre de Coubertin Medal, awarded to Long by the International Olympic Committee, is nothing more than a beautiful invention.
Long's son denies that the famous hug to Owens caused his father any damage after the games.The German followed his life normally.He graduated in law and exercised as a lawyer, while competing at the highest level.In 1937 he got the best mark of his career, by establishing a new European record in length jump.The following year he entered the Sturmabteilung (the famous SA, the Nazi militias), and two later in the party, which rules out that the regime saw in Long a disaffection.
Lee tambiénIn the chronicle above, Long also explained that, after congratulating Owens, he replied: "You forced me to do my best".The gratitude contained in that phrase could well have pushed Owens to Fabular, as posthumous tribute to his best rival and friend, a beautiful legend.
This article was published in number 641 of the Magazine Historia y Vida.Do you have something to contribute?Write us to writinghyv@historyyvida.com.
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