Jesse Owens' granddaughter and daughter at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 (© Getty Images)
IAAF’s Athletics for a Better World making donation to The Jesse Owens Foundation
Olympic hero Jesse Owens is being represented by Beverly Owens Prather, his middle daughter, and Donna Prather Williams, his granddaughter, who are currently attending the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.
Ms Prather will present the gold medal during the men’s 4x100m victory ceremony on Sunday 30 August.
The Owens family members’ visit will also commemorate the signing of an agreement between the Jesse Owens Foundation and the IAAF’s Social Responsibility programme, Athletics for a Better World. The programme will be making a donation to the Foundation.
At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Jesse Owens won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m, setting a world record in the latter. Owens, who died in 1980, was among the first inductees into the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2012.
The legendary athletics superstar’s story is told for the first time in a feature film in Race, to be released in the US by Focus Features on 8 April 2016.
Jesse Owens’ quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him on to the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy. Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man’s fight to become an Olympic legend.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins, Race stars Stephan James (of Selma) as Jesse Owens, Jason Sudeikis, and Academy Award winners Jeremy Irons and William Hurt.
