Underdog topples superstar: Powell vs Lewis

This story is unique to me as I can still clearly remember watching it live, even though I was just 6 at the time.

The year was 1991 and the event was the World Championships in Athletics, held in Tokyo.

Typically, the most thrilling events are the quick events (100m, 200m, 400m), but this time the lacklustre long-jump stole the show and brought one of the most spectacular finals ever.

Two Americans were fighting for the gold: Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. Lewis was the undisputed superstar, having won 4 gold medals in Los Angeles ’84 and considered one of the best sprinters and jumpers of all time. As a matter of fact, he had not lost a long-jump competition over a decade. Powell had been the runner-up in Seoul '88 and long-jump was his sole specialty. I was rooting for the underdog.

The long-jump record has some intriguing history. In the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Bob Beamon set the world record with a out-of-this-world jump of 8,90m, 55cm more than the previous record. Beamon was never able to reproduce that kind of mark again, but his record was able to last 23 years; that is, until Tokyo.

On the 4th jump (they had each 6 attempts), Lewis was able to make an astonishing 8,91m mark. My oh my, the best jump ever, even if it wasn't the world record as the wind was beyond the legal limit.

Powell’s turn and his 5th jump. He ran, he jumped and he made an immortal 8,95m jump , setting a new world record (wind speed was well within the legal limits). Lewis still pushed for the win in his final two attempts, with 8,87m and 8,84m legal jumps, but in the end Powell won in a competition that produced the best series of jumps ever.

Unlike Mexico, Tokyo’s weather conditions were far from ideal, which made the achievement even more remarkable. Powell’s record still holds as of today and currently, there is nobody close to touch those distances.
Whatever the explication for the quality of the finals was, it was one of the most beautiful events I have ever witnessed and another golden moment in sports.