Long Jump
By: Reagan O'Hearn
History
Long jump has been an event in the Olympics for a long time. It was part of the pentathlon event in the Olympics in Ancient Greece, circa 708 B.C. Men have been competing in this event since the beginning but women started competing in the 1928 games in Amsterdam.
What is long jump?
Long jump is when a competitor sprints on a track then jumps as far as they can in one leap.
Robert Beamon
He set the world record for long jump at the Mexican Olympics In 1968, his distance(8.90m) remained world record for 22 years and 318 days.
Jackie Joyner - Kersee
The Soviet Union and Germany were the top countries in women's long jump until Jackie took the gold in 1988
Carl Lewis
He got gold for 3 years (1988,1992, and 1996) Although they weren't consecutive years they were a huge accomplishment in his career
The Competition
Although men and women don't compete against each other, there has always been a competition between men and women. Men are all around more athletic than girls but that makes you wonder if girls will ever beat the men's long jump distance.
The Data
This data goes back 40 years and it shows the gold medal winning distances for both men and women.
More Data
The data continued
More data
the last of the data table.
Line of best fit
Shows the general trend for the Olympics and how the distance is changing over time.The blue represents the men and the red represents the women.
Will women's distance ever be better than men's?
Intersection
The intersection shows when the men's and women's distance will be the exact same. In the year 2162 the men's and women's distance will both be 8.21 meters. The years after 2162 the women's distance will increase and become further than the men's distance.