Introduction

On October 18, 1968, a 22-year-old long jumper named Bob Beaman took 19 strides. Planted his right foot, flew six feet into the air, threw his arms behind him and landed in a large sandbox. The world record going into the 1968 Olympics was 27 feet, four and three-quarters inches. That record had been broken 13 times over the previous 100 years by an average of two and a half inches.