80. Reading Skills Comprehension: GREATEST OLYMPIC PRIZE

GREATEST OLYMPIC PRIZE

It was the summer of 1936. The Olympic Games were being held in Berlin. Nationalistic feelings were running high because Adolf Hitler childishly insisted that his performers were members of a ‘master race.’

I wasn’t too worried about all this. I’d trained, sweated and disciplined myself for six years, with the Games in mind. I hoped to come back with a few medals especially for the long jump. A year before I’d set the world record of 26 feet 8 inches. All expected one from me hands down.

I was in for a surprise. I saw a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice steps. I was told that Hitler had kept him—Luz Long was his name—hidden away. 10 thought if Long won, it would be a new support to the Nazis’ Aryan-superiority theory. After all, I am Negro. I felt hot under the collar to show Der Fuhrer who was superior.

An angry athlete is liable to make mistakes. And I did too. I leapt several inches beyond the take-off board for a no-jump. It was worse on the second jump. ‘Did I come 3,000 miles for this ?’ I thought bitterly. The blue-eyed Long had easily qualified for the finals on his 15 first attempt. Suddenly, he came to me. ‘Jesse Owens, I’m Luz Long. I don’t think we’ve met’. He spoke. ‘Glad to meet you’, I said. I hid ray nervousness and added, ‘How are you ?”I am fine.’ The question is: ‘How are you ?’ On my asking what he meant, he said, `Something must be eating you. You should be able to qualify with eyes shut.’

I didn’t tell Long what was ‘eating’ me but he understood it. Although he’d been schooled 20 in the Nazi youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan-supremacy movement any more than I did. Finally, pointing to the take-off board, he said, ‘Look, why don’t you draw a line a few inches behind the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You’ll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. Tomorrow is what counts, though it matters little if you are not first in the trials’.

Suddenly all the tension seemed to ebb out of my body. I qualified with almost a foot to spare. That night I walked over to Luz Long’s room in the Olympic village to thank him. We sat there for two hours and talked about everything. As it turned out, Luz broke his past record. In doing so, he pushed me on to a peak performance. I remember that at the instant I landed from my final jump—the one which 305 set the Olympic record of 26 feet 5 5/16 inches. Long congratulated me despite the fact that Hitler glared at us from the stands not a hundred yards away. I felt elated. You could melt down all the gold medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. He was the epitome of what Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games must have in mind when 35 he said, ‘The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.’

1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions briefly as possible. Write your answers in the spaces provided.

(a) Jesse Owens hoped to win a gold medal hands down because …

(b) During 1936 there were nationalistic feelings at the climax in Berlin because …

(c) ‘All expected one from …’ What was expected from him by all?

(d) ‘Tomorrow is what counts …’ What was going to happen ‘tomorrow’?

(e) Hitler’s Aryan-superiority theory made Owens …

(f) ‘I felt elated’ Why did he feel so?

(g) Find a word from lines 25 to 35 which means ‘stared angrily’.

(h) Luz Long was the epitome of Pierre de Coubertin’s ideal because…

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