Champions: Sport
Who won four gold medals — and embarrassed Nazi propaganda — at the 1936 Olympics?
Why this month matters
For the sports-loving kid: athletes who didn't just win, but changed their games and their country in the process.
The story
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens won four gold medals and shattered the Nazis' myth of racial superiority in front of the watching world. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line with astonishing grace under brutal pressure. Muhammad Ali became "The Greatest" — and stood on his principles outside the ring as much as in it. Bill Russell won eleven NBA championships and became the league's first Black head coach. Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio to win three Olympic golds. Serena and Venus Williams redefined greatness in tennis. Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history, with moves so difficult they are named after her. And Coco Gauff won the US Open at just nineteen.
Fall down the rabbit hole
The throughline
Black athletes haven't only competed — they've rewritten the record books and pushed the whole country to be fairer.