Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump


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 by 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 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 on their first attempt.
In the first round Emmanuel Bangué took the lead with 8.19 m. Powell moved into second place in the second round at 8.17 m, with Lewis jumping 8.10 m to move into third. Greene moved into the lead in the third round with an 8.24 m, 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 get into the final eight to get three remaining jumps. No other jumper improved in his final jumps except James Beckford, whose final-round 8.29 m lifted him into the silver medal, pushing Greene to bronze.

Medalists

Abbreviations

Qautomatic qualification
qqualification by rank
DNSdid not start
NMno mark
ORolympic record
WRworld record
ARarea record
NRnational record
PBpersonal best
SBseason best

Records

Non-qualifiers

Final