One of the vital consequential Olympic medals ever awarded is on the public sale block — the silver medal captured in 1936 by Germany’s Luz Lengthy, the lengthy jumper who walked arm in arm via the stadium with Jesse Owens to rejoice their triumphs whereas Adolf Hitler watched from the stands.
Lengthy’s household has determined to public sale the medal and different collectibles from the German jumper’s profession. Lengthy was killed in World Warfare II in 1943.
The public sale home promoting the medal has labeled Lengthy’s assortment “The Beacon of Hope.”
“The story of Jesse Owens by no means appears to finish,” stated Lengthy’s granddaughter, Julia Kellner-Lengthy, in a cellphone interview from her home in Munich. “My grandfather has all the time been inspirational and influential in the way in which I select to see the world, and that is one thing I believe the world exterior wants. Now greater than ever. It offers us hope.”
Lengthy cemented himself in Olympic lore in the course of the Berlin Video games when he was the primary to congratulate Owens on his triumph within the lengthy bounce. Later they walked across the stadium collectively and posed for footage.
There’s additionally the story Owens informed of Lengthy approaching him after he fouled on his first two makes an attempt within the preliminary spherical. With just one extra attempt to make the ultimate, Owens stated Lengthy steered he take off a foot in entrance of the board, to guarantee he wouldn’t foul on his final attempt. Owens took that recommendation and went on to win the title — one in all 4 he captured in Berlin — with a then-Olympic document bounce of 8.06 meters (26 toes, 5 1/2 inches).
Owens was Black, and his stirring success at these Olympics was stated to have irritated Hitler by puncturing the Nazi fantasy of Aryan racial superiority.
The camaraderie between Owens and Lengthy, and the connection that ensued between the lads and their households, are sometimes held up because the prime instance of what the Olympics are presupposed to be about — a peaceable coming collectively of individuals from totally different international locations and cultures who set their variations apart within the spirit of competitors.
“It took plenty of braveness for him to befriend me,” Owens stated, years later. “You’ll be able to soften down all of the medals and cups I’ve and so they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Lengthy at that second. Hitler will need to have gone loopy watching us embrace.”
The choice to promote got here shortly after Luz’s son (and Julia’s father), Kai, died at age 80. Kellner-Lengthy stated the good duty of preserving her grandfather’s memorabilia ought to be handed onto a person, or museum, that has the time and assets to take action. The household additionally wished to make use of the sale to rekindle the story of Lengthy and Owens.
“Even 86 years later, shining a beacon of hope is a crucial and life like worth, particularly in a time of accelerating racism, rising exclusion and hatred,” Kellner-Lengthy stated.
The public sale home began the bidding for Lengthy’s medal at $50,000, and estimated the worth at someplace between $500,000 and $1 million. The bidding runs via Oct. 15. The worth of Olympic medals on the open market varies broadly. One in every of Owens’ 4 gold medals from 1936 fetched $1.46 million. Invoice Russell’s gold medal from the 1956 Olympics just lately bought for $587,500.
David Kohler of SCP Auctions, which is conducting the sale, stated the medal is about Lengthy, but in addition “the story of the courageousness and the athlete and what he did there.”
Lengthy didn’t stay lengthy sufficient to see his legacy play out. He was killed in 1943 within the battle of St. Pietro on the Italian island of Sardinia. Shortly earlier than that, he wrote a letter to Owens, one he predicted could be “the final letter I shall ever write.”
In it, Lengthy requested Owens to go to Germany after the battle and discover his son.
“Inform him, Jesse, what instances had been like once we weren’t separated by battle,” Lengthy wrote. “I’m saying — inform him how issues may be between males on this earth.”
Owens and Kai Lengthy met a number of instances through the years, together with at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 1966. Owens later was a greatest man at Kai’s wedding ceremony.
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Our Beacon of Hope: The Luz Lengthy Assortment Public sale is NOW OPEN! The sale is headlined by one of the crucial traditionally important Olympic medals, Lengthy’s silver medal received competing towards Jesse Owens on the 1936 Berlin Olympics 🥈#thehobby #whodoyoucollect #olympics #jesseowens pic.twitter.com/EUrEGZbt4U
— SCP Auctions (@SCPAuctions) October 5, 2022
