Word: beamon
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...professionalization of sport is, of course, not just a Chinese phenomenon. Aided by exhausting, full-time training programs, the latest in technology and, on occasion, banned substances, performances in virtually every sport have improved by literal leaps and bounds over the past quarter-century. Hallowed records such as Bob Beamon's long jump have fallen as top-level athletes train so single-mindedly that the idea of Roger Bannister's breaking the four-minute mile in 1954 as a diversion from his medical studies seems almost absurdly quaint...
Gaps like these are as rare as the gods that produce them. By 1968, no one had ever long-jumped more than 27 ft. 4 3/4 in. In the Mexico City Olympics that year, Bob Beamon jumped 29 ft. 2 1/2 in.--this in a sport in which records are broken by increments of a few inches, sometimes fractions. (Yes, the air is thin in Mexico City, but it was a legal jump and the record stood for an astonishing 23 years...
...Texan Christopher Beamon, 13, spent five days in juvenile detention for writing a horror story for his seventh-grade English class about killing his classmates. He got extra credit for the assignment...
...Beamon obliterates long-jump record in Mexico City Olympics; at same Games, black runners Tommie Smith, John Carlos stage protest...
...would finish third, "I saw a blue blur go by, whoosh, and thought, 'There goes first.'" As Johnson widened his lead, it was clear he was running for more than gold. Clyde Hart, Johnson's coach, later said, "I was in the stands in Mexico City when Bob Beamon long-jumped over 29 ft., and even when he was in the air, you just knew it was something special. Tonight, same thing." When Johnson crossed the finish line, a full 5 m ahead of silver medalist Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, the timer read 19.32 sec. People who knew the significance...