A Brave Frindship

PART 1:

Jesse Owens and luz Long first met at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany just before World War II. Jesse Owens was on the United States track and field team and Luz Long was on the German team. The two competitors were very different. Long had blond hair and blue eyes. He was a student at German university and he was the European long-jump champion. Jesse Owens was an African American whose grandfather had been a slave.

Hitler wanted to use the Olympic Games to show the world that German athletes were the best in the world. Luz Long was under a lot of pressure to beat Jesse Owens. Long, however, did not agree with Hitler. To him, Owens was not an enemy. Long didn’t believe that Owens was inferior because he was an African American. He saw as a sportsman like himself

One day during practice, Long noticed that Owen was having problems with his jump. Most athletes would take advantage of a competitor’s weakness, but not Long. He gave Owens some advice to help him succeed. In the last jump of the Games, Jesse Owens won the gold medal. Long won the silver medal. After Jesse’s victory, Long was the first person to congratulate him. He went over to Owens and shook his hand in front of Adolf Hitler and 100,000 People. This way very brave because Long was showing the world that he did not support Hitler’s beliefs. The two men were the center of attention as they walked around the stadium arm in arm in front of shocked German crowd, Owens later said,” It took a lot of courage for him to be friendly with me in front of Hitler…”

PART 2:

During their short time at the Olympics, Owens and Long became good friends. Although they never saw each other again after the Games ended, they communicated by mail until 1942. Luz Long was drafted into the German army and was killed in Italy in 1943. In his last letter Owens, Long wrote:” When the war is over, please go to Germany, find my son and tell him about his father. Tell him about the times when war did not separate us and tell him that things can be different between me in this orld”.

In 1951, Jesse Owens went to Germany to meet Long’s son. According to Owens, what he appreciated the most from Olympic experience was his friendship with Luz Long.