Long Jump

The long jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's long jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's long jump was introduced over fifty years later in 1948 and was the second Olympic jumping event for women after the high jump, which was added in 1928.

The Olympic records for the event are 8.90 metres (29.2 ft) for men, set by Bob Beamon in 1968, and 7.40 metres (24.3 ft) for women, set by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988. Beamon's mark is the longest-standing Olympic athletics record by a margin of twelve years and remains the only time a man has set a long jump world record at the competition. The women's world record has been broken on two occasions at the Olympics, with Elżbieta Krzesińska jumping 6.35 metres (20.8 ft) in 1956 and Viorica Viscopoleanu clearing 6.82 metres (22.4 ft) in 1968.

Ellery Clark and Olga Gyarmati were the first men's and women's Olympic long jump champions. Jeff Henderson and Tianna Bartoletta are the reigning Olympic champions from 2016. Carl Lewis is the event's most successful athlete as he was Olympic champion four times consecutively from 1984 to 1996.

History, Records and Statistics of Men's Long Jump

History, Records and Statistics of Women's Long Jump

Medalists

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens details	Ellery Clark  United States	Robert Garrett  United States	James Connolly  United States
1900 Paris details	Alvin Kraenzlein  United States	Myer Prinstein  United States	Patrick Leahy  Great Britain
1904 St. Louis details	Myer Prinstein  United States	Daniel Frank  United States	Robert Stangland  United States
1908 London details	Frank Irons  United States	Daniel Kelly  United States	Calvin Bricker  Canada
1912 Stockholm details	Albert Gutterson  United States	Calvin Bricker  Canada	Georg Åberg  Sweden
1920 Antwerp details	William Petersson  Sweden	Carl Johnson  United States	Erik Abrahamsson  Sweden
1924 Paris details	DeHart Hubbard  United States	Edward Gourdin  United States	Sverre Hansen  Norway
1928 Amsterdam details	Ed Hamm  United States	Silvio Cator  Haiti	Al Bates  United States
1932 Los Angeles details	Ed Gordon  United States	Lambert Redd  United States	Chūhei Nambu  Japan
1936 Berlin details	Jesse Owens  United States	Luz Long  Germany	Naoto Tajima  Japan
1948 London details	Willie Steele  United States	Bill Bruce  Australia	Herb Douglas  United States
1952 Helsinki details	Jerome Biffle  United States	Meredith Gourdine  United States	Ödön Földessy  Hungary
1956 Melbourne details	Gregory Bell  United States	John Bennett  United States	Jorma Valkama  Finland
1960 Rome details	Ralph Boston  United States	Bo Roberson  United States	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan  Soviet Union
1964 Tokyo details	Lynn Davies  Great Britain	Ralph Boston  United States	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan  Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Bob Beamon  United States	Klaus Beer  East Germany	Ralph Boston  United States
1972 Munich details	Randy Williams  United States	Hans Baumgartner  West Germany	Arnie Robinson  United States
1976 Montreal details	Arnie Robinson  United States	Randy Williams  United States	Frank Wartenberg  East Germany
1980 Moscow details	Lutz Dombrowski  East Germany	Frank Paschek  East Germany	Valeriy Pidluzhnyy  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles details	Carl Lewis  United States	Gary Honey  Australia	Giovanni Evangelisti  Italy
1988 Seoul details	Carl Lewis  United States	Mike Powell  United States	Larry Myricks  United States
1992 Barcelona details	Carl Lewis  United States	Mike Powell  United States	Joe Greene  United States
1996 Atlanta details	Carl Lewis  United States	James Beckford  Jamaica	Joe Greene  United States
2000 Sydney details	Iván Pedroso  Cuba	Jai Taurima  Australia	Roman Shchurenko  Ukraine
2004 Athens details	Dwight Phillips  United States	John Moffitt  United States	Joan Lino Martínez  Spain
2008 Beijing details	Irving Saladino  Panama	Godfrey Khotso Mokoena  South Africa	Ibrahim Camejo  Cuba
2012 London details	Greg Rutherford  Great Britain	Mitchell Watt  Australia	Will Claye  United States
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Jeff Henderson  United States	Luvo Manyonga  South Africa	Greg Rutherford  Great Britain

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Carl Lewis	United States (USA)	1984–1996	4	0	0	4
2	Ralph Boston	United States (USA)	1960–1968	1	1	1	3
3	Myer Prinstein	United States (USA)	1900–1904	1	1	0	2
	Randy Williams	United States (USA)	1972–1976	1	1	0	2
5	Arnie Robinson	United States (USA)	1972–1976	1	0	1	2
	Greg Rutherford	Great Britain (GBR)	2012–2016	1	0	1	2
7	Mike Powell	United States (USA)	1988–1992	0	2	0	2
8	Calvin Bricker	Canada (CAN)	1908–1912	0	1	1	2
9	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan	Soviet Union (URS)	1960–1964	0	0	2	2
	Joe Greene	United States (USA)	1992–1996	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	22	15	10	47
2	Great Britain (GBR)	2	0	2	4
3	East Germany (GDR)	1	2	1	4
4	Sweden (SWE)	1	0	2	3
5	Cuba (CUB)	1	0	1	2
6	Panama (PAN)	1	0	0	1
7	Australia (AUS)	0	4	0	4
8	South Africa (RSA)	0	2	0	2
9	Canada (CAN)	0	1	1	2
10	Germany (GER)	0	1	0	1
	Haiti (HAI)	0	1	0	1
	Jamaica (JAM)	0	1	0	1
	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	0	1
14	Soviet Union (URS)	0	0	3	3
15	Japan (JPN)	0	0	2	2
16	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	Hungary (HUN)	0	0	1	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	1	1

Intercalated Games

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan never came to fruition and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided not to recognise these games as part of the official Olympic series. Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.

Continuing its presence since the first Olympics, a men's long jump event was contested at the 1906 Games. The two protagonists were Myer Prinstein (the 1904 champion) and Peter O'Connor (the world record holder). Prinstein won with his opening jump of 7.20 m (23 ft 7¹⁄₄ in). O'Connor was runner-up in 7.02 m (23 ft 0¹⁄₄ in) but protested the measuring of Prinstein's mark and the judgement of no-jump rulings against him. Hugo Friend was a comfortable third in 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in).

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens	Myer Prinstein (USA)	Peter O'Connor (GBR)	Hugo Friend (USA)

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1948 London details	Olga Gyarmati  Hungary	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	Ann-Britt Leyman  Sweden
1952 Helsinki details	Yvette Williams  New Zealand	Aleksandra Chudina  Soviet Union	Shirley Cawley  Great Britain
1956 Melbourne details	Elżbieta Krzesińska  Poland	Willye White  United States	Nadezhda Khnykina-Dvalishvili  Soviet Union
1960 Rome details	Vera Krepkina  Soviet Union	Elżbieta Krzesińska  Poland	Hildrun Claus  United Team of Germany
1964 Tokyo details	Mary Rand  Great Britain	Irena Kirszenstein  Poland	Tatyana Shchelkanova  Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Viorica Viscopoleanu  Romania	Sheila Sherwood  Great Britain	Tatyana Talysheva  Soviet Union
1972 Munich details	Heide Rosendahl  West Germany	Diana Yorgova  Bulgaria	Eva Šuranová  Czechoslovakia
1976 Montreal details	Angela Voigt  East Germany	Kathy McMillan  United States	Lidiya Alfeyeva  Soviet Union
1980 Moscow details	Tatyana Kolpakova  Soviet Union	Brigitte Wujak  East Germany	Tatyana Skachko  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles details	Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu  Romania	Valy Ionescu  Romania	Sue Hearnshaw  Great Britain
1988 Seoul details	Jackie Joyner-Kersee  United States	Heike Drechsler  East Germany	Galina Chistyakova  Soviet Union
1992 Barcelona details	Heike Drechsler  Germany	Inessa Kravets  Unified Team	Jackie Joyner-Kersee  United States
1996 Atlanta details	Chioma Ajunwa  Nigeria	Fiona May  Italy	Jackie Joyner-Kersee  United States
2000 Sydney details	Heike Drechsler  Germany	Fiona May  Italy	Tatyana Kotova  Russia
2004 Athens details	Tatyana Lebedeva  Russia	Irina Meleshina  Russia	Tatyana Kotova  Russia
2008 Beijing details	Maurren Maggi  Brazil	Tatyana Lebedeva  Russia	Blessing Okagbare  Nigeria
2012 London details	Brittney Reese  United States	Elena Sokolova  Russia	Janay DeLoach  United States
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Tianna Bartoletta  United States	Britney Reese  United States	Ivana Španović  Serbia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Heike Drechsler	Germany (GER)  East Germany (GDR)	1988–2000	2	1	0	3
2	Elżbieta Krzesińska	Poland (POL)	1956–1960	1	1	0	2
	Tatyana Lebedeva	Russia (RUS)	2004–2008	1	1	0	2
	Brittney Reese	United States (USA)	2012–2016	1	1	0	2
5	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	United States (USA)	1988–1996	1	0	2	3
6	Fiona May	Italy (ITA)	1996–2000	0	2	0	2
7	Tatyana Kotova	Russia (RUS)	2000–2004	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	3	3	3	9
2	Soviet Union (URS)	2	1	6	9
3	Romania (ROU)	2	1	0	3
4	Germany (GER)[nb]	2	0	1	3
5	Russia (RUS)	1	3	2	6
6	East Germany (GDR)	1	2	0	3
	Poland (POL)	1	2	0	3
8	Great Britain (GBR)	1	1	2	4
9	Nigeria (NGR)	1	0	1	2
10	Brazil (BRA)	1	0	0	1
	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	0	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	1	0	0	1
	West Germany (FRG)	1	0	0	1
14	Italy (ITA)	0	2	0	2
15	Argentina (ARG)	0	1	0	1
	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	0	1
	Unified Team (EUN)	0	1	0	1
18	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	0	1	1
	Serbia (SRB)	0	0	1	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	1	1

• ^nb The German total includes teams both competing as Germany and the United Team of Germany, but not East or West Germany.

Non-canonical Olympic events

In addition to the main 1900 Olympic men's long jump, a handicap competition was held four days later. Pál Koppán of Hungary won with a mark of 7.895 m (1.60 m handicap) and John McLean of the United States came second with 7.72 m (85 cm handicap). Sources differ as to whether the third-place finisher William Percy Remington (who was fourth in the main Olympic event) or Thaddeus McClain (seventh in the Olympic long jump).

Two professionals-only contests were held in 1900. Mike Sweeney of the United States won with 5.995 m. Another American, Otto Schoenfeld, was second in 5.60 m, while Frenchman Jules Bouchoux came third in 5.55 m. A handicap professional contest was also held but the results have not been located.

The handicap event returned at the 1904 Summer Olympics and the three Olympic finalists who failed to win medals comprised the top three – all of them American. Fred Englehardt won with 6.82 m, Gilbert Van Cleve was runner-up with a mark of 6.53 m, and John Hagerman took third, recording 6.53 m. The corresponding handicaps are not known.