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Question
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :
An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the · take-off board for a foul.
(i) When and where is this story set? What reason does the narrator Jesse Owens give for the heightened nationalistic feelings at this time?
(ii) In which event had Owens been confident of winning a gold medal? Why?
(iii) What had, made Owens angry enough to make mistakes?
(iv) Name Owens' rival who approached him at this point. What advice did this athlete give Owens?
(v) How did the two athletes perform in the finals? What does Jesse Owens consider his 'Greatest Olympic Prize'? Why?
Solution
(i) This story is set in the time of the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936. Because Hitler childishly insisted that his performers were members of a ‘master race’, heightened nationalistic feelings at this time were at an all-time high.
(ii) Jessie Owens gained, sweated and disciplined himself for six years. He had already made a world record in the long jump in the last year. So he expected to win the gold medal easily this time.
(iii) At the time of broad-jump trials, Jessie Owens was started to see a tall boy hitting the .pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps Jessie felt angry when he was told that Hitler had kept him under wraps obviously to win the jump with.hirn. Jessie was disturbed to think if Luz Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ Aryan-superiority theory. Jessie was so disturbed that he made mistakes in his trial jumps.
(iv) Luz Long, a German, was Jessie Owens’ rival. On noticing Jessie Owens feeling disgusted, Luz Long counseled Jessie to focus on the jump by giving him a valuable tip. He said to Jessie, “Why don’t you draw a line a few inches in back of the board and aim at making your take off there?”
(v) The two athletes gave their best possible performance in the finals. They improved upon their previous records. As it turned out, Luz broke his own past record. But in doing so, he pushed Owens on to peak performance. When Owens won the medal, Long congratulated him by shaking his hand with him, without bothering about having to face the wrath of Hitler. To Jessie Owens, the greatest Olympic prize was not a gold medal but his new and noble friendship with Luz Long. He was happy to learn that the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
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