Robert Beamon (born August 29, 1946) is an American former track and field athlete, best known for his world record in the long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
In 1967 he won the AAU indoor title and earned a silver medal at the Pan American Games, both in the long jump.Prior to Beamon's jump, the world record had been broken thirteen times since 1901, with an average increase of 6 cm Beamon landed his jump near the far end of the sand pit, but the optical device which had been installed to measure jump distances was not designed to measure a jump of such length. Bob Beamon's long jump world record in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. and his world record stood for almost 23 years until it was broken in 1991 by Mike Powell. He broke the existing record by a margin of 55 cm (21 ⁄3 in.) In 1965 Beamon set a national high school triple jump record and was second in the nation in the long jump. As of 2020 , the jump is still the Olympic record and the second longest wind legal jump in history. This video is in slow motion. This forced the officials to measure the jump manually which added to the jump's aura. Shortly after the Mexico City Olympics, Beamon was drafted by the Beamon has worked in a variety of roles to promote youth athleticism, including collaborations with former California governor Note 1: In 1888 both the NAAAA and the AAU held championshipsOT: The 1920, 1928, 1932, and since 1992, championships incorporated the Olympic Trials, otherwise held as a discrete event.