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Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump
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The men's long jump was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics program in Mexico City. The long jump took place on 18 October 1968. Thirty-five athletes from 22 nations competed.[1] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at three since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
Men's long jump at the Games of the XIX Olympiad | ||||||||||
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![]() Lebanese stamp commemorating the 1968 Olympic long jump | ||||||||||
Venue | Estadio Olímpico Universitario | |||||||||
Date | October 18 | |||||||||
Competitors | 35 from 22 nations | |||||||||
Winning distance | 8.90 WR | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/TV-icon-2.svg/110px-TV-icon-2.svg.png)
Bob Beamon won by 71 cm in a new world record of 8.90 m (29 ft 2+3⁄8 in); a record which stood for nearly 23 years until it was finally broken in 1991, when Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m (29 ft 4+3⁄8 in) at the World Championships in Tokyo.[2] It was the United States' 14th gold medal in the men's long jump. Beamon's teammate Ralph Boston became the first man to win three medals in the event (gold in 1960, silver in 1964, bronze in 1968); Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the Soviet Union barely missed doing so as well, finishing fourth (bronze in both 1960 and 1964). Klaus Beer took silver, East Germany's first medal in the event and the first medal by any German since Luz Long's silver in 1936.
As of 2023, Beamon's winning margin of 71 cm remains the only time the men's long jump was won by more than 50 cm at the Olympics. For comparison, Carl Lewis' greatest winning margin in the long jump at the Olympics was 30 cm which he achieved in Los Angeles in 1984.