Incredible photo of Jesse Owens and Luz Long who defied Hitler at Olympic Games

It’s one of the most defining images of sporting history. A middle class Aryan German and a young black athlete from the Alabama cotton fields lying side by side - the best of friends - in the Olympic stadium. It was 1936 Berlin and 21-year-old Jesse Owens had beaten his new pal Luz Long, 23, to the gold medal in the long jump - breaking the world record with a jump of 8.06 metres.

Jesse - who won four gold medals at the games - must have realised he had achieved something great, as the 100,000 strong crowd began cheering and chanting his name, singing ‘Ovens, Ovens, Ovens.’ Graciously beaten into second place, Luz Long hugged and congratulated him, before the pair linked arms to complete a lap of honour - all under the watchful eye of Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler.

“In the context of the Hitler Olympics, it was a beautiful moment, but it also shows what the Olympics should really be about,” said author William C Rhoden. Now a new film Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Games, coming to Sky History on October 5, tells the incredible story of the Black American, descended from slaves, who cleaned up at the Nazi Olympics.

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Jesse also won the 100 metre dash, the 200 metre sprint and the 100 metre relay - a body blow for Germany’s racist dictatorship. Reflecting on his win over rival Luz, American sportswriter and TV reporter and author Jeremy Shapp described the legendary moment as a “Black American grandson of slaves competing against this model of Aryan youth, and how in that moment, instead of being adversaries, they became brothers.”

Yet, Jesse almost didn’t qualify for the long jump at the Olympics. Ironically, Luz gave him the advice that helped him to win gold - telling him to jump early, even if it reduced his total distance. This heartwarming story not just of friendship, but of good winning over evil, became one that Jesse loved to tell. “I have experienced many moments in the sun, but perhaps the most rewarding was to have Luz Long beside me on the winner’s platform,” he said.

Sadly, the men’s extraordinary friendship was short-lived. World War II broke out just three years later in 1939 and Luz - whose public embrace with Jesse led to warnings and close monitoring by the Nazi authorities - was killed in battle. Jesse’s daughter Marlene Owens said: “My father was sent a letter from Luz. In it he says, “Would you promise that you will go find my son and tell him what kind of person I was?”

So, in 1951, Jesse tracked down Luz’s son Kai and they, too, became good friends. The families have stayed in touch, with Jesse and Luz’s granddaughters, Gina and Julia, forming a special friendship and even lighting the Olympic flame at the Berlin Stadium in 2004. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, Andre Gaines, the Triumph filmmaker explained how, growing up in Ohio where Jesse went to university, he’d been inspired to tell the athlete’s story.

“Jesse’s story is one that a lot of people think they have heard before, but not many know the true extent of what he went through and how he still struggled to overcome racism when he returned to the US,” he said. “I learned about Jesse’s story growing up in Ohio. He went to the same school as my brother and became an idol of mine.

“He changed the lives of so many athletes and, as a filmmaker, being able to meet his daughters and talk to them and really understand the man - as opposed to the legend - was my opportunity to tell the full story. One of the things that was striking to me was how Jesse Owens was treated after the Olympics.

"He’d accomplished this amazing feat of strength, athleticism and sportsmanship, yet when he came back to the US he was treated like dirt. And what he had to do in order to scrape by and care for his family, in order to pay the bills after the Olympics, was a huge surprise to me... He was reduced to racing against horses - it was almost like he was a circus freak.”

Jesse struggled to find steady employment after the Olympics, working as a gas station attendant, dry cleaner and racing horses for money. "People say it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals,” Jesse said. It didn’t help that Jesse was banned from competing by the American Athletic Union after he left a tour early to spend time with his family.

A devoted dad, growing up had been tough for Jesse, at a time when Black Americans were treated as second class citizens. His daughter Marlene Owens explained how he was the grandson of a slave and how the family struggled to make ends meet, saying: “I think, in the end, it was their spirit that helped them survive, and it was primary in the building of his character.”

The only place Jesse was treated as an equal was on the sports field. “He used to talk about running in the field and how he just loved the feeling because it made him feel free,” she added. But some people thought he should never have gone to Berlin to compete in the games that made his name, because of the Nazi attitude to Jews.

“He was extremely conflicted,” Marlene added. “He wanted to be a part of the sentiments of the Black community, but also wanted to be a participant in the Olympics. It had to be very difficult and very frustrating and scary. But it was his father who made the difference. His father told him that, “They’re going to hate you whether you go or not, and you should go.”

Jesse’s other daughter, Beverly, said: “For a Black man to go to a country where you really aren’t welcome and gain the respect from a crowd that is not really for you, it’s like a badge of merit. It’s something that I wear with great pride and believe in perpetuating what he stood for.”

Meanwhile, attitudes to Jesse in the US, as a Black athlete, were often despicable. While he was given a hero’s welcome in a special homecoming ceremony in New York, he was still asked to use the side entrance at a party in his honour at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Amira Rose Davis, Professor of African Studies at the University of Texas said: “What he found when he got home was disrespect, even at the places that would host balls in his honour.

“He was still needing to go around the back door. No matter the glory he brought to the United States, he was still just a coloured boy who needed to be reminded of his place.” Yet nothing broke Jesse’s spirit and, to this day, he is described by many as the greatest athlete of all time.

“If you look at all the great champions and all the great moments, and all the drama, if you were to ask who is the ultimate Olympian, I think Jesse Owens is the inevitable answer,” said Jeremy Shaap. “It’s about what he achieved, and it’s about the backdrop against which he achieved it. “When you look at the story of civil rights in America and you consider the role of prominent athletes, Jesse Owens, you could argue, is at the very forefront.”

The two hour film, Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Games , narrated by Don Cheadle and executive produced by LeBron James premieres on Saturday 5th October at 9pm on Sky HISTORY.

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