NEW YORK — Bob Beamon holds the longest-standing Olympic track and field record, and it looks likely to survive Rio 2016 and cross the 50-year mark.
Beamon leaped 8.90 meters to win the Mexico City 1968 Olympic long jump. It smashed the world record at the time and stood as the longest jump ever until Mike Powell‘s 8.95-meter leap in the epic 1991 World Championships.
Nobody, in any competition, has come within 17 inches of Beamon’s Olympic record since 2009. It would be astonishing if the Olympic record fell in Rio next year.