2023-10-18 06:28:44
With 8.90 meters, Bob Beamon shattered the long jump world record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. What significance the American’s moment of glory still has to this day.
It only took Bob Beamon a single jump exactly 55 years ago, on October 18th, to change the long jump forever. In his first attempt at the Olympic final in Mexico City, the lanky American landed at 8.90 meters, meaning the then 22-year-old shattered the world record by 55 centimeters. The German Klaus Beer, 1968 Olympic silver medalist (8.19 m), would later say regarding the “leap into the 21st century”: “It was so high and lasted so long. It was already clear to me that it would be a huge stretch.”
Because the new electronic distance measurement failed, it took almost 20 minutes until the result determined using a tape measure was official. “I didn’t want to believe it, I thought I was dreaming and that I was in an unreal world,” Beamon recalled in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag”. “I saved this six-second film for eternity.”
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