From Long with love

“Happy Birthday to you!” *Clap* *clap*

Sorry readers, that one wasn’t for you. It just so happens that my brother celebrates his birthday today, (12th September for those of you reading this later). Incidentally, so does my mom, and I had something of a double celebration. In fact, I decided to include celebrities into my parties as well (at least in memory), so I went over to Wikipedia to find famous people born on the same day. After a series of boring and long names (Duke Lorenzo II de’ Medici of Urbino and Guillaume Le Gentil anyone?), I finally came across a familiar name, Jesse Owens.

My mind raced back to an article I read a few summers back. I believe it appeared in a Reader’s Digest, but I could be mistaken. It was interview of Jesse Owens, conducted by the son of the now forgotten Luz Long.

Jesse Owens at the winners podium, with Long behind him

Luz Long was a fellow athlete and champion. He can now be called the Asafa Powell of Broad Jump (as long jump was known back then), a champion, a rival, but not the legend in our hearts (with Owens being Bolt, naturally). He won a Silver at the Berlin Olympics in broad jump, after breaking the Olympic record back then, but he is now fondly remembered as a person who exhibited sportsmanship of the highest level, which saw him win the ‘Pierre de Coubertin award for sportsmanship’ posthumously. Long stood first in the preliminary trials, while Owens failed to qualify in his first two attempts, for he had overshot the line each time. When Owens sat dejected, Long approached him and asked him to jump before reaching the line, which wouldn’t be much of a problem since Owens routinely cleared the mark set for qualifications. Owens did so on that occasion too, beating the minimum required by a good 4 inches.

The finals of the same event have now been immortalized in numerous stories and short movies, with Owens dropping the classic ‘egg on the face’ on Hitler, who refused to hand him the winners medal due to his race (biological, not the athletic event). However, in the extremely hostile Nazi Germany, Luz walked up to Owens after the event and congratulated him, and walked arms in arms with his new found best friend around the stadium, their medals bouncing on their chest, both so proud of their contributions to their countries.

Owens went on to win 4 medals that year, but the Long jump remained his 9th symphony, his Mona Lisa. But when later asked about his time at the Olympics, he replied “It took a lot of courage for him [Long] 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 Luz Long at that moment”.

Long went on to participate in the 2nd World War, and it ended with the same result. He stood 2nd, and in war that generally means death. But, in his last letter to his dear friend in the country he was at war against, he requested his friend to tell people how things can be between men on Earth. Men of flesh, each as respectable as the other. Men who transcended every single barrier put up by the others. Men who participated as equals in every aspect of life, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, just like the one he had exhibited…