Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics
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The story of Jesse Owens, the African-American son of sharecroppers who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany, is that of a high-profile athlete giving a performance that transcends sports. It is also the intimate and complex tale of the courage of one remarkable man. Unabridged. 7 CDs.Publishers WeeklyWritten as though the film treatment were already completed, Schaap's chronicle of Jesse Owens's journey to and glorious triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is snappy and dramatic, with an eye for the rousing climax, through curiously slight on follow-through. Starting with Owens as the well-feted ex-athlete in the 1950s, Schaap (an ESPN anchor and author of Cinderella Man) flashes back to Owens's childhood in 1920s Cleveland, where junior high coach Charles Riley spotted his astounding physique and near limitless potential for track and field. Owens seems so perfectly made for running and jumping that the following years of ever-increasing athletic and popular success are less exciting than preordained. By the time the "Ebony Antelope" (as one of many adoring newspapermen had anointed him) was ready for Berlin, his success was practically guaranteed. The real drama of Schaap's book, which surprisingly skimps on Owens the person, comes in the politically fractious runup to Berlin (for the ceremony-obsessed Hitler, "a fascist fantasy come true"). While the story has been told many times, Schaap makes good use of his prodigious research and access to the Owens family, even digging up the fact that Owens's oft-repeated claim he was snubbed by Hitler and the Berlin crowd was very likely untrue. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Prologue xiPart IA Day to Remember 3Out of Alabama 14Vincible 31Heel Bones and a New Start 55Part IIThe Judge and the Millionaire 63"We Are with You, Adolf" 83A Blessing in Disguise 98Jew Kills Nazi 105A Friend and a Foe Felled 112Olympic Trials 122Part IIIOlympia 137The Belle of the Ball 142The Battle Tent of Some Great Emperor 150The Youth of the World 159Day One 172Day Two 183Day Three 196"He Flies Like the Hindenburg": Day Four 213The Relay 219Epilogue 230Notes 237Acknowledgments 257Index 261
