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Jesse Owens and Lutz Long
The long jump event of 1936 Berlin Olympics on August 4 was German star athlete Lutz Long's first event against Jesse Owens of USA.

Long qualified easily, setting an Olympic record during the preliminary round. In contrast, Owens fouled on his first two jumps. Knowing that he needed to clear the third jump in order to advance for the finals in the afternoon, Owens sat on the field, dejected.


According to Owens, Long came to him and suggested he jump from a spot several inches behind the line. Since Owens routinely jumped much further than the required 7.15m, he would safely advance to the next round without risking another foul.

On his final jump, Owens was very calm and jumped with about half a foot of clearance. He went on to win the gold medal with 8.06m, besting Long's own record of 7.87m. Long was the first to congratulate Owens, they posed together for photos and walked arm-in-arm to the dressing room.

Jesse Owens was later quoted, "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 twenty-four carat friendship that I felt for Lutz Long at that moment."