09: My Greatest Olympic Prize By Jesse Owens : Icse-x-english

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Answers from My Greatest Olympic Prize by Jesse Owens
Read the extract and answer the following questions:

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Section : I
I guessed that if long won, it would add some new suport to the Nazis' Aryan-superiority theory. After all, I am a Negro. A little hot under the collar about Hitler's ways. I determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn't. 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. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. "Did I come 3000 miles for this?" I thought bitterly. "To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself?"

Qstn #1
Why was Jesse not worried about Hitler's declaration of the supremacy of Master's race?
Ans : Owens did not bother about the patriotic feelings which were running high in Germany. He had full faith in his capabilities. He had trained, sweated and disciplined himself for six years and what occupied his mind were games and games only. He thought only of taking one or two gold medals.

Qstn #2
What surprised him?
Ans : Jesse was surprised to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps on the broad-jump trials. He was a German named Luz Long who was kept hidden by Hitler with the hope to win the jump. His marvellous performance in the trials startled Owens.

Qstn #3
An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. Justify this statement.
Ans : Although Jesse Owens' full concentration was on his game and winning the gold medal but he got distracted somewhat after seeing Luz Long's performance. He thought that if he won, it would add support to Nazi's AryanSuperiority theory. He got irritated by this and thinking about this, he was filled with anger and fouled twice in the qualifying jumps.

Qstn #4
What was the Nazi's Aryan-superiority theory?
Ans : Adolf Hitler believed in Aryan-superiority theory. According to him the athletes of Germany should be from Master's race and would do better than other competitors in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The nationalistic feelings were at prime at that time.

Qstn #5
Why did Jesse Owens become so tensed afterwards?
Ans : On his first three qualifying jumps, Jesse Owens leapt from several inches beyond the take-off board. He fouled. On the second jump, he did worse and fouled again. It reminded him that he had not travelled three hundred miles for making repeated fouls and making a fool of himself. His mind was full of bitterness over his own underperformance.

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Section : II
"Something must be eating you", he said-proud the way foreigners are when they've mastered a bit of American slang. "You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed." "Believe me, I know it", I told him—and it felt good to say that to someone. For the next few minutes we talked together. I didn't tell Long what was "eating" me, but he seemed to understand my anger, and he took pains to reassure me. Although he'd been schooled in the Nazi youth movement, he didn't believe in the Aryan-supremacy business any more than I did.

Qstn #1
Why did Owens kick the pit in disgust?
Ans : Owens was already angry with Hitler's Nazi theory and an angry athlete is prone to making mistakes. Owens knew this very well. still, he could not control his temper and on his first trial, he leapt several inches beyond the take-off point which resulted in disqualification. He walked a few yards from the pit and kicked it in despair and disgust.

Qstn #2
What was eating him and did he tell it to Luz Long?
Ans : Jesse Owens was hot under the collar with Hitler's childish theory because of which his trial performance was affected. He had a very bad impact on him after fouling in the final qualifying jumps and this was eating him.
He did not tell it to Luz Long on being asked as what bothered him because by that time Long was not his friend, he was simply a co-athlete apart from being a Nazi rival.

Qstn #3
Describe Luz Long's physique.
Ans : Luz Long was blue-eyed tall German athlete. He was an inch taller than Jesse Owens. He had a lean muscular body. He carried blonde hair and was astonishingly handsome and had a well-chiselled face or a perfectly carved face.

Qstn #4
What were Luz Long's views about Aryan- supremacy theory?
Ans : In the trials for the long jump event, Jesse fouled on his first two attempts. Luz Long, the top German broad jumper who had qualified for the finals came to him and gave his introduction. Though he was trained in Nazi school, he did not believe in the Hitler's Aryan-supremacy theory that his performers were from the master race and would perform better than the others and that no one could beat them. He advised Owens to play safe.

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Section : III
That night I walked over to Luz Long's room in the Olympic village to thank him. I knew that if it hadn't been for him I probably wouldn't be jumping in the finals the following day. We sat in his quarters and talked for two hours—about track and field, ourselves, the world situation, a dozen other
things. When I finally got up to leave, we both knew that a real friendship had been formed. Luz would go out to the field the next day trying to beat me if he could. But I knew that he wanted me to do my best-even if that meant my winning.

Qstn #1
How did the rivalry between the two players come to an end?
Ans : Seeing Owens tensed too much, Luz Long approached him and tried to calm him down by giving suggestions. Suddenly all the tension seemed to flow away from his body as the truth what Long told him struck him. Full of confidence, he drew a line a full foot in back of the board and proceeded to jump and qualified with almost a foot to spare. That night he went to Long's room and thanked him. They sat and talked for two hours on every topic.