Jesse Owens in Berlin

In August 1936, the Olympic Games took place in Berlin. Germany's Nazi government wanted the Games to show the world that white Germans were better than everyone else. A young Black athlete from the United States was about to make that idea look foolish. His name was Jesse Owens, and he was a 22-year-old student at Ohio State University.

On August 3, Owens won the 100 metres. The next morning, he was competing in the qualifying round of the long jump, and at first things were going badly. Still in his tracksuit, he ran down the runway and into the sand, just to warm up. The officials counted it as his first jump. On his second try, he stepped over the take-off board, and that was a foul. He had one jump left. If he failed again, he was out.

This is where Luz Long comes into the story. Long was Germany's best long jumper and the holder of the European record. Years later, Owens described what happened next. While he was standing there, worried, Long walked over and gave him some advice: he should take off from a spot a few inches before the board. That way he couldn't foul, and he would still jump far enough to qualify. On his third jump, Owens took off well before the board and qualified easily.

Not everyone believes that part. A famous sports journalist who watched the whole qualifying round said he never saw the two men talk. Owens himself once told a writer that it was "just a good story." But nobody doubts what happened in the final that afternoon. Jump after jump, the two men pushed each other. Long equalled Owens's best jump of 7.87 metres. Owens answered with 7.94 metres, and then with 8.06 metres. Long finished second.

Owens went on to win the 200 metres and the 4x100 metres relay: four gold medals in one week. Long's story ended much sooner. He was killed in the Second World War, in Sicily, in 1943. After the war, Owens travelled to Germany and visited Long's son, and he later said that his friendship with Long meant more to him than all his medals.

But the picture many people remember comes from the end of the long jump final. Long was the first to congratulate the winner. Then, in front of a German crowd, the two men posed for photographs. After that, they walked off together, arm in arm: the German who had lost and the American who had won.