Ticket stub for ‘Athletics’ at the Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany, on August 9, 1936, the date American track and field athlete Jesse Owens won a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter sprint relay; the gold medal was his fourth and final at the XI Olympiad and secured his place as the most victorious athlete at the Berlin Games. The ticket stub, 4 x 2.75, numbered 26860, reads “Leichtathletik” and is issued for Block 33, Row 20, and Seat 36. In fine condition.
Owens won a gold medal—his fourth of the Games—in the 4 x 100 m sprint relay when head coach Lawson Robertson replaced Jewish-American sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller with Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, who teamed with Frank Wykoff and Foy Draper to set a world record of 39.8 seconds in the event. Owens had initially protested the last-minute switch, but assistant coach Dean Cromwell said to him, ‘You'll do as you are told.’ Owens obliged and soon became the biggest news story in the world.
