Mike Powell

Michael Anthony "Mike" Powell (Philadelphia, United States, November 10, 1963), American long jump specialist.

At the 1991 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, he broke Bob Beamon's 23-year long jump world record with a record of 8.95 meters.

Biography

Background

Powell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Edgewood High School in West Covina, California, where he placed second in the high jump at the 1981 CIF California State Meet. He later attended the University of California at Irvine and later transferred to the University of California at The Angels. He is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Sports career

Powell won the silver medal in the long jump at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

At the 1991 World Championships in Athletics (Tokyo) on August 30, 1991, Powell broke the long jump world record held by Bob Beamon, who was almost 23 years old, by 5 cm (2 inches), jumping 8.95 m (29 ft 4+1⁄4 in). The world record still stands, making it the oldest long jump world record since records have been kept. His feat earned him the James E. Sullivan Award and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 1991.

He also holds the longest non-legal jump of 8.99 m (29 ft 5⁄4 in) (with +4.4 wind aid) set in height at Sestriere, Italy in 1992[4].

Powell again won the silver medal in the long jump at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In addition to his famous victory in 1991, he again won the long jump at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, and came third at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics.

After his withdrawal

Powell became an analyst for Yahoo! Sports.

In July 2009, he stated that he intended to return to competition with the goal of breaking Tapani Taavitsainen's world record for over 45s in the long jump.

At the Simplot Games on February 20, 2015, in an official announcement, Powell declared that, at age 51, he would return to competitive jumping. On March 7, 2015, Powell was entered in the New Zealand Athletics Championships, where each jump was considered a masters world record attempt. However, Powell suffered an injury in the warm-up and did not make it to compete. He later stated that he would jump again in the future and has now signed up for the WMA Tampere in July 2022.