Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Men's long jump at the Games of the XIX Olympiad | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Venue | Estadio Olímpico Universitario | |||||||||
Date | October 18 | |||||||||
Competitors | 35 from 22 nations | |||||||||
Winning distance | 8.90 WR | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
The men's long jump was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics program in Mexico City. The long jump took place on 18 October 1968. Thirty-five athletes from 22 nations competed.[1] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at three since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
Bob Beamon won in a new world record of 8.90 m (29 ft 2+3⁄8 in); a record which stood for 23 years until it was finally broken in 1991, when Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m (29 ft 4+3⁄8 in) at the World Championships in Tokyo.[2] It was the United States' 14th gold medal in the men's long jump. Beamon's teammate Ralph Boston became the first man to win three medals in the event (gold in 1960, silver in 1964, bronze in 1968); Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the Soviet Union barely missed doing so as well, finishing fourth (bronze in both 1960 and 1964). Klaus Beer took silver, East Germany's first medal in the event and the first medal by any German since Luz Long's silver in 1936.