Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump
| Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics  |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track events | ||||
| 100 m | men | women | ||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| 400 m | men | women | ||
| 800 m | men | women | ||
| 1500 m | men | women | ||
| 5000 m | men | women | ||
| 10,000 m | men | women | ||
| 100 m hurdles | women | |||
| 110 m hurdles | men | |||
| 400 m hurdles | men | women | ||
| 3000 m steeplechase |
men | |||
| 4×100 m relay | men | women | ||
| 4×400 m relay | men | women | ||
| Road events | ||||
| Marathon | men | women | ||
| 10 km walk | women | |||
| 20 km walk | men | |||
| 50 km walk | men | |||
| Field events | ||||
| Long jump | men | women | ||
| Triple jump | men | women | ||
| High jump | men | women | ||
| Pole vault | men | |||
| Shot put | men | women | ||
| Discus throw | men | women | ||
| Javelin throw | men | women | ||
| Hammer throw | men | |||
| Combined events | ||||
| Heptathlon | women | |||
| Decathlon | men | |||
| Wheelchair races | ||||
These are the official results of the men's long jump athletics event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were a total of 54 competitors, with one non-starter.
Carl Lewis was on the edge of making history, to equal the unique accomplishment of Al Oerter winning four Olympic championships in the same event. However, now 35 years old, he was comparatively quite old for a sprinter/long jumper. Lewis barely made it to the Olympics, only finishing third at the 1996 Olympic Trials behind world record holder Mike Powell (at 33, also five years beyond his peak) and 29 year old Joe Greene. These same three American jumpers had swept the event four years earlier.
While Lewis was ranked number one from the qualifying round, it took him three jumps to make the automatic qualifier. Lewis gained some notoriety by winning the 1984 Olympics on his single, first attempt. Powell, Greene and Iván Pedroso made their automatic qualifier (8.05m) on their first attempt.
In the first round Emmanuel Bangué took the lead with 8.19m. Powell moved into second place in the second round at 8.17m, with Lewis jumping 8.10m to move into third. Greene moved into the lead in the third round with a 8.24m, until Lewis made his 8.50 jump. Lewis' jump equalled former rival Larry Myricks' still standing Masters M35 World Record.
While Pedroso was the reigning world champion and had jumped significantly better just a year earlier, he didn't manage to get into the final eight to get three remaining jumps. No other jumper improved in their final jumps except James Beckford, whose final round 8.29m bounced him into the silver medal, pushing Greene to bronze.
Medalists
| Gold | Carl Lewis United States |
| Silver | James Beckford Jamaica |
| Bronze | Joe Greene United States |
Abbreviations
- All results shown are in metres
| Q | automatic qualification |
| q | qualification by rank |
| DNS | did not start |
| NM | no mark |
| OR | olympic record |
| WR | world record |
| AR | area record |
| NR | national record |
| PB | personal best |
| SB | season best |
Records
| Standing records prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Record | Mike Powell (USA) |
8.95 m | August 30, 1991 |  Tokyo, Japan |
| Olympic Record | Bob Beamon (USA) |
8.90 m | October 18, 1968 |  Mexico City, Mexico |
Non-qualifiers
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Mark | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 Carl Lewis (USA) |
8.50 | x | 8.14 | 8.50 | - | 8.06 | x | SB |
 |
 James Beckford (JAM) |
8.29 | x | 8.02 | 8.13 | x | x | 8.29 | |
 |
Joe Greene (USA) |
8.24 | 7.80 | 7.79 | 8.24 | x | x | x | SB |
| 4 |  Emmanuel Bangué (FRA) |
8.19 | 8.19 | 8.10 | x | 7.88 | 6.46 | 6.87 | |
| 5 | Mike Powell (USA) |
8.17 | 7.89 | 8.17 | 7.99 | x | x | x | SB |
| 6 |  Gregor Cankar (SLO) |
8.11 | x | x | 8.11 | x | x | 5.33 | |
| 7 |  Aleksandr Glovatskiy (BLR) |
8.07 | 8.07 | x | 8.07 | x | x | x | |
| 8 |  Mattias Sunneborn (SWE) |
8.06 | 7.89 | 7.97 | 8.06 | 8.04 | 8.03 | 7.75 | |
| 9 |  Huang Geng (CHN) |
7.99 | 7.99 | 7.87 | 7.89 | ||||
| 10 |  Yuriy Naumkin (RUS) |
7.96 | 7.96 | 7.88 | 7.95 | ||||
| 11 | Andrey Ignatov (RUS) |
7.83 | x | 7.83 | 7.58 | ||||
| 12 |  Iván Pedroso (CUB) |
7.75 | x | 7.57 | 7.75 | ||||
| 13 |  Erik Nys (BEL) |
7.72 | 7.59 | x | 7.72 | ||||
Six weeks after his fourth win, Lewis would wear his gold medal at the trailer of the ABC Sports' Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles - Green Bay Packers.
See also
- 1994 Men's European Championships Long Jump (Helsinki)
- 1995 Men's World Championships Long Jump (Gothenburg)
- 1996 Long Jump Year Ranking
- 1997 Men's World Championships Long Jump (Athens)
- 1998 Men's European Championships Long Jump (Budapest)
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