8 Olympic heroes

Chapter 8 Olympic heroes The 1936 Olympics in Berlin took place when the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was ruling Germany.

Hitler was eager to show off the strength of the German team, but the star of the Games turned out to be a black American runner from Ohio, called Jesse Owens. Despite strong competition from the Germans, Owens won an outstanding four gold medals- for the 100m and 200m running races, the long jump and the 100m relay.

Owens went on to inspire many top athletes, including an American, Carl Lewis. In the 1984 Olympics, Lewis won exactly the same events as Owens. Over four Olympic Games, Lewis won a total of nine gold medals, including an astonishing four golds in the long jump.

Lewis's nine golds matched the record of a remarkable Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi, nicknamed the Flying Finn. Nurmi won his gold medals in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympics.

A Dutch athlete, Fanny Blankers Koen, became an international hero in the 1948 London Olympics. At 30, and a mother of two, many people thought she had little chance of success. She went on to win gold in the 100m, 200m, 80m hurdles and the 4x100m relay.

One of the stars of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was American Bob Beamon who leaped a remarkable 8.9m (29ft) in the long jump, breaking the old world record by 55cm (22 inches). Beamon was so shocked, he fell to his knees saying, "Tell me I'm not dreaming!" His world record lasted 23 years.