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An Olympic Record That Still Stands
Bob Beampn’s long jump.
Only one man has jumped a bit further, but not in the Olympics. It was a heterosexual who went into Man’s Country for an actual steam bath.
No, actually it was Mike Powell, who jumped 2 inches further in the 1991 World Championship in Tokyo. Earlier in the meet Carl Lewis broke Beamon’s record but it was disallowed as a world record (allowable to win the championship, however) because the tail wind at the time of his jump was beyond the legal limit. (2 meters per second.)
Beamon’s record stood for 23 years, until Powell’s jump.
Here’s Beamon’s jump.
jclady
August 7th, 2012
Oh, yes. I’m old enough to remember Bob Beamon’s jump.
Carl Lewis was a Man’s Country wannabe.
Stirrin the B.S.
August 7th, 2012
Amazing – he outjumped the measuring equipment.
norman einstein
August 7th, 2012
Incredible!
Stranded in Sonoma
August 8th, 2012
My sister traveled to Mexico in 1967 and brought back some V-neck T-shirts with the olympic logo on them. I wore that shirt for a long time.
I remember Beamon’s jump well. I was 11 and 6th grade was a few months underway. The jumpers before him had their numbers posted practically right away and I and my family wondered why they needed a tape measure for this specific jump. When Jim McKay said that the tape measure was needed not because of a failure of the equipment, but because Beamon had out-jumped the equipment, we all realized we’d just seen history.
1968 was a strange year indeed.
January — The Tet Offensive
February — Nixon announces for presidency
March — Johnson announces he will not seek re-election
April — MLK assassinated
May — Peace talks begin in Paris
June — RFK assassinated
July — Film “Yellow Submarine” premieres (and a small company named Intel is founded)
August — Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia
September — NOW targets Miss America pagent
October — Mexico Olympics
November — Nixon wins election
December — Apollo 8 orbits the moon
Katechon
August 8th, 2012
“…beyond the limits of the measuring equipment…”
Beautiful.
muddjuice
August 8th, 2012
That, was one giant leap for mankind…..
Callmelennie
August 8th, 2012
You’d have to give lots of credit to the 7000 ft altitude in Mexico City for this. Several world records that stood for 10 to 20 years were set in Mexico City’s Olympic Stadium to include
Jim Hines — 100 meters, 9.95 (16 years)
Lee Evans — 400 meters, 43.86 (20 years)
USA!– 4×400 relay, 2.56.16 (24 years)
And finally, there’s the 200 meters mark of 19.86 set by fist saluting shithead Tommy Smith at the 68 Olympics. This mark was bested 11 years later at Mexico City by a white boy, Pietro Mennea (19.72)and that mark lasted for 17 years.
In Beamon’s defense, the current world record is only the tiniest fraction better than his, whereas athletes have now gone well beyond those other records
Stranded in Sonoma
August 8th, 2012
@Callmelennie — I remember that before the ’68 Olympics, there were many comments about what effect the 7000 ft altitude would have on the athletes. Most of the comments centered around a decrease in oxygen that might make times slower and distances shorter. Less oxygen, shortness of breath, etc. I recall that vividly. Some pundits did prognosticate the opposite would happen. And then it did.
And one more medal to talk about at the 1968 Olympics. The Fosbury Flop.