How did Bob Beamon beat the long jump record by 55 centimetres in one leap?

The jump was strange in several ways at once. Since 1901 the long jump record had been broken thirteen times, by 6 centimetres on average and by 15 at most. On 18 October 1968, at the Olympics in Mexico City, Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 metres with his very first jump of the final, 55 centimetres beyond the record. It stood for almost 23 years.

No single cause explains it; several pieces came together. One is the place. Mexico City sits high up, and the jump was made at an altitude of 2,292 metres. Thin air offers less resistance, which helps sprinters, and distance in the long jump depends mostly on how fast you leave the board. The same Games produced a first officially timed 100 m under ten seconds, by Jim Hines.

Another is the man. Beamon had won 22 of the 23 meets he entered that year and had already jumped 8.39 metres with too much wind to count. Yet he nearly missed the final: he overstepped twice in qualifying and only got through by re-measuring his run-up before his last chance.

The human moment came right after the landing. Beamon was unfamiliar with metric measurements and did not understand the number. When his coach Ralph Boston told him he had beaten the record by nearly two feet, his legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees.