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People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.

— Jesse Owens Interview (1971)

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More quotes by Jesse Owens

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that's where it's at.

Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man (1970)

Hitler didn't snub me; it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.

It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.

Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.

Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jesse Owens (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.