Frasi di Jesse Owens

„Un'opportunità è tutto ciò di cui hai bisogno.“

—  Jesse Owens

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„Un'intera vita di allenamenti per soli 10 secondi.“

—  Jesse Owens

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„Non aveva niente da perdere…. quindi ha vinto tutto“

—  Jesse Owens

„Ho sempre amato correre: è un qualcosa che puoi fare contando soltanto su te stesso, sulla forza dei tuoi piedi e sul coraggio dei tuoi polmoni.“

—  Jesse Owens

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„Per un velocista, il trattino da cento metri è finito in tre secondi, non nove o dieci.“

—  Jesse Owens

„When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.“

—  Jesse Owens

As quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html (2005), by Larry Schwartz, ESPN SportsCentury

„It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler… You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment.“

—  Jesse Owens

On the congratulations given by German athlete Lutz Long, a competitor in the long jump, who in some accounts he credited with giving him some friendly advice that helped him to win against him; as quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html in ESPN SportsCentury (2005)
Contesto: It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.

„Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black… But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.“

—  Jesse Owens

The Tampa Tribune (1 April 1980)

„The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that's where it's at.“

—  Jesse Owens

As quoted in Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0688011632 (1970)
1970s

„The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.“

—  Jesse Owens

As quoted in People In America : "Jesse Owens" by Barbara Dash http://web.archive.org/web/20071219045105/http://voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-07-2-1.cfm on VOA (7 June 2002)

„I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago… the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.“

—  Jesse Owens

„To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.“

—  Jesse Owens

Contesto: To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first "second" is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final "second" — the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete — is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you're made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what's happening.

„It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards.“

—  Jesse Owens

Contesto: It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards. … The secret is, first, get a thoroughbred horse because they are the most nervous animals on earth. Then get the biggest gun you can find and make sure the starter fires that big gun right by the nervous thoroughbred's ear.

„She was unusual because even though I knew her family was as poor as ours, nothing she said or did seemed touched by that. Or by prejudice. Or by anything the world said or did. It was as if she had something inside her that somehow made all that not count.“

—  Jesse Owens

On his wife, Minnie Ruth Solomon
Contesto: She was unusual because even though I knew her family was as poor as ours, nothing she said or did seemed touched by that. Or by prejudice. Or by anything the world said or did. It was as if she had something inside her that somehow made all that not count. I fell in love with her some the first time we ever talked, and a little bit more every time after that until I thought I couldn't love her more than I did. And when I felt that way, I asked her to marry me … and she said she would.

„The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers — weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.“

—  Jesse Owens

Said to Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who had given the black power salute while receiving their Olympic medals

„After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.“

—  Jesse Owens

„We'd get into these little towns and tell 'em to get out the fastest guy in town and Jesse Owens would spot him ten yards and beat him.“

—  Jesse Owens

„We used to have a lot of fun. We never had any problems. We always ate. The fact that we didn't have steak? Who had steak?“

—  Jesse Owens

„It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.“

—  Jesse Owens

On having his world records beaten