Beamon, Bob (Robert)
Track and field
b. Aug. 29, 1946, Jamaica, NY
After Beamon's famous long jump at the 1968 Olympics, Soviet competitor Igor Ter-Ovanesyan said, "Compared to this jump, we are as children." English jumper Lynn Davies said to Beamon angrily, "You have destroyed this event!"
Beamon had not only become the first man to jump more than 28 feet--he had gone beyond 29 feet. The length was officially announced as 8.90 meters, which converts into 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches. That shattered the world record of 27 feet, 4 3/4 inches set by Ralph Boston in 1965. Beamon's record was finally broken twenty-four years later by Mike Powell in the 1992 world championships.
Although Beamon had won twenty-two out of twenty-three meets he'd entered in 1968, he wasn't generally considered the Olympic favorite. That honor was shared by Ter-Ovanesyan and Boston. Beamon had a history of inconsistency and he was prone to fouling. He had also been suspended from the University of Texas-El Paso track team four months before because he'd refused to compete in a meet against Brigham Young University, as a protest against Mormon racial policies.
The suspension left him without a coach. Ironically, Boston had been coaching him unofficially. When Beamon fouled on his first two qualifying jumps at the Olympics, Boston pointed out that he could take off well before the board and still qualify. On his final jump, Beamon took off from a foot behind the board and easily made the qualifying distance, then went on to make history in the finals.
Beamon won only one national long jump championship, also in 1968. However, he set a national high school record for the triple jump in 1965.