Long Jump - Records

Records

Jesse Owens set a long jump world record 8.13 m (26 ft 8 in) that was not broken for 25 years, until 1960 by Ralph Boston. In 1968, Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 m (29 ft 2 1⁄₂ in) at the 1968 Summer Olympics at an altitude of 7,349 feet (2,240 m), a jump not exceeded for a further 23 years, in 1991. On August 30 of that year, Mike Powell of the United States, in a well-known show down against Carl Lewis, leapt 8.95 m (29 ft 4 1⁄₂ in) at the World Championships in Tokyo, setting the current men's world record which has now stood for over 20 years.

Some jumps over 8.95 m (29 ft 4 1⁄₂ in) have been officially recorded. 8.99 m (29 ft 6 in) was recorded by Mike Powell himself (wind-aided +4.4) set at high altitude in Sestriere, Italy in 1992. A potential world record of 8.96 m (29 ft 5 in) was recorded by Iván Pedroso, with a "legal" wind reading also at Sestriere, but the jump was not validated because videotape revealed someone was standing in front of the wind gauge, invalidating the reading (and costing Pedroso a Ferrari valued at $130,000--the prize for breaking the record at that meet). Lewis himself jumped 8.91m moments before Powell's record-breaking jump with the wind exceeding the maximum allowed; this jump remains the longest ever to not win Olympic or World Championship gold medal, or any competition in general.

The current world record for women is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former Soviet Union who leapt 7.52 m (24 ft 8 in) in Leningrad on June 11, 1988, a mark that has stood for 24 years.