Longest-standing Olympic record in athletics

Recorded on 18 October 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City, Mexico, Bob Beamon’s long jump of 8.90 m (29 ft 2 in) has never been bettered at an Olympic Games: as of the most recent event, on 13 August 2016 in Rio, a span of 12 Games and 47 years 300 days. The 2016 men’s long jump was won by Jeff Henderson with a jump more than half a metre below Beamon’s extraordinary leap. The closest has been Carl Lewis’s jump of 8.72 m (28 m 7 in) at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. No other Olympic record set by a man or a woman has stood for so long.

Although Beamon’s jump remains an Olympic record, it is no longer the world record. It was finally broken by Mike Powell (USA) in 1991, who recorded a jump of 8.95 m at the Athletics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.