Dove

The man who chose friendship over gold at history's darkest hour.

Luz Long is one of sport's most enduring symbols of peace and human decency — a German athlete who befriended Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, openly advising his rival during the long jump qualifying rounds despite enormous Nazi political pressure to do otherwise. His act of courage and warmth in that charged atmosphere was profoundly principled and diplomatic, putting humanity above nationalism and personal glory. Long embodies the dove's defining qualities: a gentle idealism, a refusal to let hatred win, and a quiet moral clarity that still resonates decades after his death in World War II.