Long Jump, Men

Carl Lewis was trying to win four gold medals in Los Angeles, the 100, 200, long jump, and 4x100 relay, to duplicate the 1936 feat of Jesse Owens. He had won the 100, long jump, and relay at the 1983 World Championships and was considered the greatest track & field athlete in the world in 1984. His biggest challenger was American Larry Myricks, who would likely have been favored in 1980, but lost his chance at Olympic gold because of the boycott. In the final, Lewis opened with 8.54 (28-0¼), and took only one more jump, which he fouled. He then kept passing, confident that his mark would hold up, which it did easily. But the fans in the Los Angeles Coliseum did not like this, booing Lewis and never warming to him at all during the Olympics. Non-knowledgable fans did not realize that Lewis was saving his legs for the remainder of his competitions. The silver medal went to Australia’s Gary Honey, the 1982 Commonwealth Games champion. He tied at 8.24 (27-0½) with Italy’s Giovanni Evangalisti but won silver because of his best second mark of 8.18 (26-10).