"Life is a marathon. It doesn't matter when you cross the finish line, but the way you run it."

The old Latin saying Vita hominis militia superterram est, meaning Human life on earth is a battle, most vividly reflects the life of the hero of this story. His way of living could be summed up, in short, as a fierce struggle, a ceaseless race and a longing for self-fulfilment. Such was the life lived by the athlete Jesse Owens, an African-American who won four gold medals and was the star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

He was born into a poor and humble family. He grew up in very difficult conditions and circumstances. Dreaming of great ideals, he understood, already in early childhood, that success requires both sacrifice and sweat. This boy, forever wearing a broad smile, would always arrive at sports training only after running, straight after school, to do his shift at the shoe shop, where he would earn a few coins. Because he was dark-skinned, he encountered racism and great opposition. This was one of his everyday struggles. He bore it all patiently, wisely, and with a smile on his face.

He once declared: "I have always loved running. While I run, I depend on no one but myself; I am free to choose any direction, to enjoy the scenery, relying on the strength of my own legs and lungs. I can run fast, or slow, and battle the wind."

Jesse Owens can today be the brightest example, for every person, of what the strength of fighting spirit is, and what the will to leap over obstacles in order to achieve any goal really means. Owens competed professionally in the sprint events and in the long jump. On one occasion a journalist asked him why he had chosen exactly these disciplines. Owens replied that after school he always had to run to catch the bus to work, since not a single second of lateness would be forgiven him. And so he always had to run for the bus. He ran that day, and the next, and again the day after that. And in time he realised that he was only just short of being able to reach the shoe shop faster than the bus. It was the same with the long jump — from an early age he had to learn to leap over countless obstacles and great difficulties.

His fellow countryman Carl Lewis, one of the greatest athletes of all time, likewise a winner of four gold medals at the 1986 Los Angeles Olympics, admits that it was Jesse Owens who very early on became his role model and inspiration: "As a thirteen-year-old I saw a picture of Jesse Owens on the track in Berlin, and it thrilled me. Watching him, I understood that achieving great and ambitious goals requires great fighting spirit and a readiness for sacrifice."

Jesse continued to train hard. The wise advice of his coach cut deeply into his heart. His coach, Charles Riley, told him that the most important victory is the one over oneself. He also told him that an athlete must never be like an actor, watching others, looking at his rivals — instead he must be resolute, look straight ahead, and be focused only on himself and the race. And so Jesse first mastered himself and his own body, then the adversities of his surroundings, and only at the end his rivals. Jesse Owens did not encounter racist harassment only in Germany and Berlin. He was all too used to a climate of contempt in the USA, and especially in New York. That is why he did not compare life to a fast hundred-metre sprint, but to a long marathon: "Life is a marathon, a long race with its ups and downs, over hills and through valleys. Sometimes with pauses along the way, but what matters is not how fast you crossed the finish line, but the way you ran the whole time."

At last the time of the Olympics arrived! In the final, the young man with the infectious smile and the "wrong" colour of skin defeated two German athletes who were considered favourites and the perfect embodiment of Aryan invincibility. Before the long jump, impressed by his character and talent, his rival Lutz Long advised him to take off a little further back from the line, so as not to overstep it and have his jump disqualified. This advice from his chief rival, so unexpected and so valuable, helped him win the gold medal.

Even upon his return to New York, the triumphant winner was met with insults and contempt. At a formal reception at the Waldorf Hotel he had to enter through a side door, since he was not permitted to use the main entrance, and for the celebration held upstairs he had to use the freight lift, not the lift used by the other guests. The winner of four Olympic gold medals was not invited to a reception at the White House; instead, he received only a written note of congratulation from President Franklin Roosevelt. The boy who once ran for the bus, now an Olympic legend, still had to ride in the back of the bus. But Jesse Owens never complained — that was not his style. His way of life was struggle, not lament. Finally, in 1976, for his golden races, his steadfastness and his dedication, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian honour. 

When asked what he considered his greatest and most significant achievement, Jesse replied: "My greatest achievement in life is that I married Ruth. We met in high school. I asked her sister to give her a note on which I had written, asking whether I could walk her home. Ruth agreed, and so I regularly walked her home, carrying her books. Later, when we married, she became the person I trusted most and my inspiration. My wife Ruth is my greatest achievement in life."

Each of us may, from time to time, feel unprepared for our own daily struggle. We may feel unequal to our present goals and challenges. The true story of this hero's relentless struggle, through all the difficult circumstances of the history he lived through, can be an encouragement and a shining example to every one of us of all that is beautiful and "unattainable" which we, too, are nevertheless capable of doing and achieving. With fighting spirit, and through struggle. To the very last breath. For ideals are worth fighting for. In the end, too, in the sense of the Pauline unfading crown of glory.