Jesse Owens Broke Four World Records in Just 45 Minutes

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Jesse Owens is remembered primarily for his four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but the most astonishing performance of his career came a year earlier, on May 25, 1935, at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Owens had severely hurt his back the previous week and nearly withdrew from the competition. Instead, he stepped onto the track and proceeded to set three world records and tie a fourth within 45 minutes. He equaled the world record in the 100-yard dash, then broke the world records in the long jump, the 220-yard dash, and the 220-yard hurdles. The long jump record he set that day — 26 feet, 8.25 inches — stood unbroken for 25 years. No single athlete before or since has broken or equaled four world records in a single afternoon in any major track and field competition. By the time he delivered that performance, Owens was 21 years old and had already faced years of racial discrimination in American society. His four Berlin gold medals the following year were made all the more significant by the political context of Nazi Germany, but it is the 45-minute performance in Ann Arbor that athletics historians most often cite as the day's single greatest athletic achievement.