Portal:Sport of athletics/Selected biography/37
Robert Beamon (born August 29, 1946) is an American former track and field athlete, best known for his world record in the long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. By jumping 8.90 m (29 ft 2+1⁄4 in), he broke the existing record by a margin of 55 cm (21+3⁄4 in) and his world record stood for almost 23 years until it was broken in 1991 by Mike Powell. The jump is still the Olympic record and the second-longest in history unassisted by wind. (Full article...)
Beamon entered the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City as the favorite to win the gold medal, having won 22 of the 23 meets he had competed in that year, including a career-best of 8.33 m (27 ft 3+3⁄4 in) and a world's best of 8.39 m (27 ft 6+1⁄4 in) that was ineligible for the record books due to excessive wind assistance. That year, he won the AAU and NCAA indoor long jump and triple jump titles and the AAU outdoor long jump title.[1] He came close to missing the Olympic final, overstepping on his first two attempts in qualifying. With only one chance left, Beamon re-measured his approach run from a spot in front of the board and made a fair jump that advanced him to the final. There, he faced the two previous gold-medal winners, fellow American Ralph Boston (1960) and Lynn Davies of Great Britain (1964), and twice bronze medallist Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the Soviet Union.[2]
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- ^ Bob Beamon Archived June 30, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- ^ Bagchi, Rob (November 23, 2011). "50 stunning Olympic moments No2: Bob Beamon's great leap forward". The Guardian.