On This Date in Sports October 18, 1968: Beamonesque

American Bob Beamon jumps nearly to the moon as he sets a new World Record in the Long Jump. Landing a jump of 29 feet 2.5 inches (officially 8.90 meters) at the Mexico City Olympics. Bob Beamon broke the previous record shared by American Ralph Boston and Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan by an astonishing 22 and a half inches. The record-shattering leap forward was so impressive it gave birth to a new word, Beamonesque.

Bob Beamon was born in Queens, New York, on August 29, 1946. Beamon began to take up track and field while at Jamaica High School, becoming one of the top athletes in New York City. After starting at North Carolina A&T, Beamon’s career began to take off when he transferred to Texas Western, which was renamed UTEP. At the time it was growing, UTEP became one of the top track programs in the NCAA. However, Beamon lost his scholarship before the Olympics when he refused to play against Brigham Young over their racial policies.

Without a coach, due to his protest of BYU, Bob Beamon was mentored by Ralph Boston, who had won the Long Jump Gold Medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and shared the World Record with Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. Leading into the Olympics, Beamon had become one of the World’s top long jumpers, winning 22 of 23 meets. Before setting the record, Bob Beamon was struggling in Mexico City, as he fouled on his first two qualifying jumps and needed to make a clutch jump just to make the final.

In the final, with storm clouds rolling in, Bob Beamon, in a scene that may have looked like the plot of a Hollywood movie, ran down the runway and made the perfect launch as if he were weightless. Beamon landed further and installed a measuring device, leading officials to bring a tape measure to record the official distance. The number read 8.90 meters, or 29 feet 2.5 inches, bettering the old record by nearly 23 inches. After realizing what he had just done, he collapsed to his knees and had to be helped back up because of the enormity of the jump. A rainstorm rolled in, making it impossible to top Beamon’s jump as Klaus Beer of East Germany finished second at 8.19 meters, while mentor Ralph Boston got the Bronze Medal with a jump of 8.16.

Some try to diminish the jump, saying that Bob Beamon was aided by the wind, which was at the limit of two miles per second to not carry an asterisk for being wind-aided. Some even suggested the altitude help, as Mexico City’s elevation of 7,350 is the highest in Olympic history. However, none of the other competitors came close to what Beamon did in breaking the old mark by 22 inches. This gave birth to the term Beamonesuqe when a wide margin tops a new record. Bob Beamon’s description would stand for 23 years before American Mike Powell topped it in the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. However, Beamon’s jump remains the Olympic history and the second-longest long jump ever recorded in competition.