One of the four gold medals won by Alabama native Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is up for bids in an online auction that opened on Monday.
The Goldin Auctions’ 2019 Holiday Auction features the gold medal, which carries a minimum bid of $250,000.
“No athletic award carries the same historical weight and value as Jesse Owens’ gold medal-winning performance at the 1936 Olympics, for no athlete ever achieved nor proved as much as Owens did during those Games,” said Ken Goldin, the founder of Goldin Auctions. “Even though we have offered at auction some of the most iconic sports collectibles, it is the highest honor to share this museum-worthy item with the world.”
Owens won gold medals in the 100-meter dash, long jump, 200-meter dash and 4-by-100 relay at the 1936 Summer Games.
On Aug. 3, 1936, Owens equaled the Olympic record of 10.3 seconds to win the 100. On Aug. 4, Owens set an Olympic record of 26 feet, 5 inches to win the long jump. On Aug. 5, Owens won the 200 with a world-record time of 20.7 seconds. On Aug. 9, he helped the U.S. 4-by-100-meter relay team set another world record -- a 39.8-second showing that stood until the 1956 Olympics.
But the magnitude of Owens' performance extended beyond the track and long-jump pit. The 1936 Summer Olympics were hosted by Nazi Germany, where German Chancellor Adolf Hitler used the Berlin Games as a propaganda tool for the Third Reich. The Nazis also hoped the Olympic results would support their view of Aryan superiority.
But the 1936 Games aren't remembered for Germany's medals or the Nazi pageantry. Instead, it's the performance by the son of an Alabama sharecropper and the grandson of slaves that has endured.
Because the gold medals awarded at the 1936 Olympics were not marked by event, it's not possible to know which of Owens' medals is up for bids.
The whereabouts of two of the medals are unknown. One of the medals was given by Owens to friend Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and was sold at auction for $1.46 million in 2013.
A release from Goldin Auctions stated the medal being auctioned comes from the children of John Terpak Sr., an Olympic weightlifter who befriended Owens and received it from him.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.