In today’s sports, an athletes greatness is judge based on their performance. It is not many athletes who stand for something other than their sport.
When I think of athletes who have influenced history and influenced my participation in sports as an African American Athlete, I think of Jackie Robinson.
Some will argue with me and say Jesse Owens stance in the 1936 Olympics against Hitler but in the heat of racial violence and protest during the civil rights movement in America, Jackie Robinson set out to prove that a black man could play in major league baseball.
Jackie didn’t just want to play in the negro leagues. Jackie got his wish with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Without his courage and love of baseball where would we all be?
Jackie Robinson broke a boundary that is greater than any record set by the record breaking African American athletes of the modern age: Michael Jordan; Wilt Chamberlin; Willie Mayes; Hank Aaron; Kobe Bryant; Jesse Owens; Jackie Joyner Kersey and Wilma Roudolph broke.
All these athletes have had to overcome many trials and tribulations to become great but no other athlete has had as much pressure not to succeed as Jackie Robinson did. The racial boundary Jackie broke is what makes Jackie Robinson an Ultimate Athlete.
The boundary of having someone not let you compete because of the color of your skin is greater than any record that will ever and will continue to be broken in sports.
