3. Jesse Owens.

This man is perhaps the most famous track and field athlete of all time, a Gold medal winner across four different disciplines at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Hosted by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, this instalment of the games was utilised by the Third Reich as a propaganda exercise to promote the supremacy of the Aryan white race, believing that Hitler’s outlandish and primitive views would be supported by a games dominated by his fellow countryman.

Enter Jesse Owens, a black athlete from the USA that had encountered racial bigotry not only on his arrival to Germany, but also via the other side of the pond from his own fellow Americans.

What followed is known as one of the greatest 45 minutes in sport as Owens captured Olympic Gold in four different events. The 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m relay, a feat that would only be equalled 48 years later by Carl Lewis.

In a now infamous show of contempt the Fuhrer promptly exited the Olympic stadium without shaking his hand, as Owens dominant performances ridiculed the core beliefs that Hitler had built a new resurgent Nazi Germany on.

Jesse Owens stood alone defiantly on the winners podium, in the face of a neanderthal political backdrop that would later plunge the world into war.

The images of this moment have stood the test of time and still powerfully resonate with society today, as one man’s determination to resist racial perjury was radically highlighted on one of the worlds grandest stages.

• athletics
• olympics
• track and field