How Did Olympian James Cleveland Owens Embodies The Ancient Greek Athletic Ideal?

The passages “The Olympics, Then and Now” and “A Great Athlete” support the claim that Olympian James Cleveland Owens embodies and transformed the Olympic athletic ideal from ancient times and early modern era Olympics. Owen embodies the ancient greek athletic ideal that in the past any free man could participate and as an african american, the Olympics didn’t discriminate. Owens represents the early modern Olympic Games because he traveled to another country for the games. In early modern Olympics, games were open to people all around the world. Owen’s transformed the athletic ideal with his achievement of winning four gold medals which no other athlete matched until about fifty years later. Thus, the Olympic athletic ideal was changed as a result of Owens.

Olympian James Cleveland Owens was a track and field athlete who embodies the ancient greek athletic ideal that anyone could participate in the Olympics. When the Olympics began in the 700s BC, “any free man in Greece was welcomed” (“The Olympics, Then and Now” line 14-15) and allowed to participate. As Owen’s being african american and a lot of discrimination was happening during the 1900s, however Owens still competed in the Olympics. In addition, during the ancient time period, track and field was one of the original sports of the Olympics. Owens participated in several track

In 1896, the first modern Olympics were held and people from all over the world got to participate. Owens represented the United States in Berlin in 1936 which is similar to the early modern athletic ideal because both allow people from all over the world to participate in the event. The quote “several changes were made- most notably, that people from all over the world were allowed to compete.” (“The Olympics, Then and Now” line 30). Jesse Owens qualified for the event and traveled to Germany to compete. Therefore, Olympian James Owens represents the early modern Olympic