Word: beamon
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...medium-size truck, easily traversed by a motorcycle daredevil propelled off a ramp -- but not by unaided tendon, sinew, flesh and blood. Only a few dared to challenge the long-jump record -- the oldest and most awesome in track and field -- set in 1968 when the American Bob Beamon flung himself through the thin Olympic air of high-altitude Mexico City, spanning a gap no man had crossed before...
Many experts thought the record a fluke, unlikely to be repeated. At 7,347 ft. above sea level, Mexico City was perfect for a leap into history, but just ! that once. The Red Sea parts only under extremely specific cosmic circumstances. Beamon never got close to his record again, nor did he quite figure out how he did it. All others who tried failed. Until last week...
...Carl Lewis didn't do it. If anyone might have been expected to break Beamon's record, Lewis was it. He is the king of track and field. Earlier last week Lewis proved he could still be the fastest human alive, when he set a new world record of 9.86 sec. to take the 100-m gold medal at the World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo. And even though the muggy, sea-level Japanese capital was hardly ideal for breaking the long-jump record, Lewis was going to try. In an astonishing series, he turned in the greatest sequence...
...heavy with humidity and threatening summer clouds. When he came down, he felt something had happened. "I knew it was far, and I knew it was close to Carl's. When I looked at it, I thought it might be a world record." It was. He had broken Beamon's unmatchable mark by a full 2 in. The 60,000 spectators at Tokyo's National Stadium were on their feet, cheering. From the sidelines the eclipsed Lewis watched Powell claim victory, brushed off tears and walked away...
...ratings for expensive network specials and sports have also been sinking. The Summer Olympics on NBC drew an average prime-time rating of 17.9, well under the 21.2 promised to advertisers -- and a Bob Beamon long jump away from the 23.2 drawn by ABC for the Summer Games in 1984. NBC, which paid $300 million for the TV rights, will show an unexpected loss because of the compensation time it must give advertisers...