Jesse Owens was an African American born on September 12, 1914 in Oakville, Alabama. Jesse was the grandson of slaves and the son of sharecroppers. As a boy, Jesse loved to run; Even when he had no chores to do at home, he simply ran for the fun of it until his lungs couldn't take it anymore. Jesse and his family were farmers in Alabama and were very poor. They regularly attended a Baptist church on Sundays. Eventually, Jesse's family moved to Cleveland. While Jesse was in elementary school, Charles Riley, a track and field coach, noticed how fast he ran and jumped high and offered to coach him. He wanted to meet young Jesse so he could turn him into a good high school track and field athlete and even an Olympic athlete. This coach advised Jesse to run more than he did in gym class. He also suggested running 90 minutes a day after school, but Jesse couldn't run after school because he was busy working in the fields. So instead of running every day after school, he decided to run before school. During training, Coach Riley would critique Jesse's running to help him improve his form, keeping his knees and head high and his back straight. Jesse wasn't used to a white-American coach working with him to achieve a goal. Coach Riley would push him and that would allow Jesse to do his best. When Jesse was 15, in a friendly 100-meter race, Coach Riley timed his run at 11 seconds. Coach Riley was so impressed because he had never seen a 15-year-old run the 100 meters at that time. One day, Riley picked up Jesse and took him to watch thoroughbred racing. Riley thought that horses were the purest runners, not like humans who were burdened by human flaws such as selfishness and vanity. Re...... half of the card ......if you put a mark behind the board to aim for so when he jumped he didn't commit a foul. He tried what Long suggested and didn't foul and got 26 feet. 0 in breaking the record. On the final jump Long had fouled and just like that Jesse won the long jump. In his last jump Jesse broke the record again by achieving 26 feet, 5.5 inches. Even though Jesse Owens came from a poor family, he still had within him the perseverance, zeal, and courage to be the best Olympic athlete he could be. His legacy has continued to inspire a whole new generation of track and field athletes. In fact, in 1976, Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Discrimination in his country and in Germany did not stop or discourage him from doing his best.