Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens’s four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics—winning the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m relay—remain one of sport’s most defiant political statements, delivered in front of Adolf Hitler. His long jump of 8.13 metres set a world record that stood for 25 years, surpassing the runner-up’s best mark by over 30 centimetres. In 1999, the International Olympic Committee voted him the Olympic Athlete of the 20th Century, a title that outperforms #9 Bjorn Daehlie’s 1996 honor as Norway’s greatest winter athlete in national history.