The greatest athlete of the century? Despite the brevity of Jesse Owens' career - he retired at age 23 - he displayed talents that only Carl Lewis has rivalled since. The son of an Alabama sharecropper, Owens tied the World Record for 100 yards while still in high school. He got even better under coach Larry Snyder at Ohio State University. On May 25, 1935, at the Big 10 Championships in Ann Arbor, Owens overcame a sore back to break five World Records and tie a sixth. First he sprinted 100 yards in a record-tying 9.4. Then he jumped 8.13m, improving the old record by 15cm. He sprinted a straight 220 yards in 20.3, surpassing the best for the shorter 200m as well. Finally, 45 minutes after he started, he hurdled 220 yards in 22.6, also better than the metric best. "I wasn't thinking about records," he revealed.

At the 1936 Olympics, Owens forged an historic four gold medal performance, winning the 100m in 10.3, the long jump in 8.06, the 200m in 20.7, and leading off the 4 x 100m that broke the World Record with its 39.8. After becoming famous in America because of his snub by Adolph Hitler, Owens later noted, "I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either." He turned professional after the Olympics to support his family. Successful in business and a key spokesman for the Olympic movement, he died in 1980, four years before Lewis would emulate his Olympic performance in Los Angeles.