Two oak trees which are to be planted in honour of US Olympic legend Jesse Owens were officially presented at the Verregatpark in Brussels on Friday ahead of the Wanda Diamond League Final.
The trees, which will be planted in November, were unveiled alongside a memorial plaque in the presence of Owens’ grandchildren and Belgian Olympians Cynthia Bolingo and Michael Somers.
The Owens family with the two oak trees and the new plaque. Photo: Matthew Quine
They are part of the Jesse Owens Rising Star Award, an initiative launched by the Owens family and the Jesse Owens Foundation to honour up and coming talent in track and field athletics.
“We are truly grateful,” said Owens’ grandson Stuart Rankin. “In addition to track, one of my grandfather’s great passions was working with young athletes and young people.”
“His legacy was not just about gold medals”: Read an interview with Jesse Owens’ granddaughter Gina Hemphill-Strachan here
The Jesse Owens Rising Star Award will be presented each year at the final of the Wanda Diamond League, athletics’ premier one-day global series.
It is awarded to one male and one female winner aged 23 or under, the same age Owens was when he won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a sporting achievement which went unmatched for half a century and served as a powerful rebuke to the racist ideology of Nazi Germany.
Each winner will also have an oak tree planted in their honour, in reference to Owens’ success at the Berlin Olympics.
Alongside their gold medals, each Olympic champion at the 1936 Games also received an oak sapling from the German organising committee.
Jesse Owens with his oak saplings in 1936. Photo courtesy of Gina Hemphill-Strachan
Owens received four saplings, one of which he planted in the grounds of the James Rhodes Ford High School, where his sporting career had begun.
A descendant of that oak tree was also planted outside the Jesse Owens Museum in Oakville, Alabama.
The two trees planted in Brussels are Quercus robur – the same species Owens received in 1936 – and were transported from Berlin ahead of the Wanda Diamond League Final.
They will grow in the Verregatpark, just a few hundred metres away from the King Baudouin Stadium. They provide an enduring, sustainable symbol of Owens’ legacy and the potential of young athletes to make a lasting impact on sport and society.
Read more about the Jesse Owens Rising Star Award here
