Icon Carl Lewis is beside himself
Planned long jump revolution causes elite mutiny
March 5, 2024, 1:58 p.m
It’s not just legend Carl Lewis who reacts with complete incomprehension: the discussion about abolishing the long jump beam is dividing the athletics world. The world association wants to make the fans happy with the revolution, an Olympic champion is even thinking about quitting.
For the greatest long jumper in history, the proposed revolution is nothing more than a crazy idea. “Perhaps you should wait until April 1st with April Fools’ jokes,” says Carl Lewis about the World Athletics Association’s considerations of replacing the take-off board, which has been tried and tested since ancient times, with a take-off zone: “In basketball you don’t make the basket bigger, either a lot of people miss.”
Transferred to the long jump, this is exactly what the world association grandees around President Sebastian Coe have in mind. “At the 2023 World Championships, around a third of the jumps were invalid,” the Brit calculated on the sidelines of the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow last weekend, adding that it would be boring for the audience. “Our sport is 150 years old. There are inviolable elements that we want to protect. But there are also areas that leave spectators cold,” said Coe, referring to the long jump.
The competition watchdog’s suggestion: The beam, already known to the ancient Greeks as Bater, which must not be stepped over and from whose edge the jumping distance is measured, should give way to an area in which the athletes can jump off freely. The effective distance is measured, there are no invalid attempts, the spectators don’t complain. Good or?
“Long jump removes the need for skills”
Miltiadis Tentoglou sees it very differently. “If that happens, I will stop doing the long jump,” threatened the Greek Olympic champion after successfully defending his title in Glasgow: “That would remove the need for skills in the long jump.” The latter stands out from the fascinating interplay of speed and precision.
If the bar is missing, the demand is missing, the stimulus is missing. And the long jump, which has been a new Olympic event since 1896, is ruined. “Anyone who wants to make such decisions has never had anything to do with sport,” complains Serbia’s world champion Ivana Spanovic. The German Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo expressed herself somewhat more diplomatically. “I think it’s a matter of taste. Both have their place, they set different priorities.”
But what would change? If you just look at the result lists: not much. Tentoglou and Spanovic would have won World Cup gold even if the measurement had been effective. Mike Powell’s world record would be 8.98 meters instead of 8.95 – the American gave away three centimeters in the legendary 1991 World Cup duel with Lewis in Tokyo.
Carl Lewis gives important advice
Nevertheless, the long jump would be a different discipline in the future: If you no longer have to look at the board, you can start in a completely different and more carefree manner. “The long jump is the easiest discipline,” says Tentoglou.
But what particularly annoys the Greeks is the decision-making process without the expertise of the athletes. “We are never asked, we are not heard,” he complained: “I am an Olympic champion and world champion, but no one cares about my opinion.”
And this is also the core problem for the four-time long jump Olympic champion Lewis. “The athletes would never agree to that,” he says. And in general, if you want to make the long jump more attractive again, there is a simple solution. “Everyone who has ever jumped over 8.80 meters is still alive. Maybe you should ask them how they did it.”