The Complete Guide of Long Jump Statistics

See Part 1 of The Complete Guide of Long Jump Statistics.

This article was guest posted by Ian Graham.

Ian also wrote Michael Johnson Deep Dive, an in depth look at his performances and splits, and the Complete Guide to 4x100m Relay Statistics.

In Part One, I primarily looked at the men’s event and relevant statistics. Here in Part two I am going to look at the women’s event, championship performances (Olympics, Worlds, Europeans) in both the men’s and women’s events, and take a closer look at Carl Lewis and Heike Dressler’s performances.

Women’s Long Jump World Records

World Record Outdoors = 7.52m Galina Chistyakova (URS) 1988
World Record Indoors = 7.37m Heike Drechsler (GDR and GER) 1988
World Junior Record = 7.14m Heike Drechsler (GDR and GER) 1983
World Youth Record = 6.91m Heike Drechsler (GDR and GER) 1981
World Master (W35) Record = 6.99m Heike Drechsler (GER) 2000

NOTE: All of the above records are also the European Records

68 Female Jumpers over 7.00m Spanning 1978-2013

53 EUROPEAN athletes over 7.00m (See Below For Breakdown)
9 USA athletes over 7.00m (8 outdoors and 1 indoors)
2 Nigerian athletes over 7.00m
1 Brazilian athlete (Maurren Higa Maggi) 7.26m (1999)
1 Jamaican athlete (Elva Goulbourne) 7.16m (2004)
1 Chinese athlete (Weili Jao) 7.01m (1993)
1 Australian athlete (Bronwyn Thompson) 7.00m (2002)

European 7.00m Plus Jumpers By Nation

17 URS athletes
13 Russian athletes
5 GDR athletes
4 Romanian athletes
3 Belarusian athletes
2 German athletes (Heike Drechsler is listed under GDR)
1 EUN athlete (Inessa Kravets) 7.37m (1992)
1 Portugal (Naide Gomes) 7.12m (2008)
1 Italian athlete (Fiona May) 7.11m (1998)
1 Austrian athlete (Ljudmila Nonova Rudoll) 7.09m (1994)
1 Spain (Niurka Montalvo) 7.06m (1999)
1 France (Eunice Barber) 7.05m (2003)
1 Greek athlete (Niki Xanthou) 7.03m (1997)
1 TCH athlete (Eva Murkova) 7.01m (1984)
1 Bulgarian (Sylvia Khristova Moneva) 7.00m (1986)

Top 20 Jumps of All Time Outdoors (7.37m – 7.52m)

15 of those jumps are by European athletes
9 of those jumps are by Heike Drechsler GDR/GER
(7.48m, 7.48m, 7.45m, 7.45m, 7.44m, 7.40m, 7.40m, 7.39m, 7.37m)
5 of those jumps are by Jackie Joyner Kersee USA
(7.49m, 7.49m, 7.45m, 7.40m, 7.39m)
2 of those jumps are by Galina Chistyakova URS
(7.52mWR and 7.45m)

The Most 7.25m or Better Wind-Legal Jumps…

32 Heike Drechsler, GDR and GER (7 jumps of 7.40m or better) – All-time #3
10 Jackie Joyner Kersee, USA – All-time #2
9 Galina Chistyakova, URS – All-time #1
6 Yelana Belevskaya, URS – All-time #6
2 Anisoara Stanciu, Romania – All-time #4
2 Inessa Kravets, EUN/UKR – All-time #7
2 Yelena Khlopotnova, URS – All-time #9
2 Marion Jones, USA – All-time #10
1 Tatyana Katova, Russia – 7.42m (2002) – All-time #5
1 Tatyana Lebedava, Russia – 7.33m (2004) – All-time #8
1 Irina Meleshina, Russia – 7.27m (2004) – All-time #11
1 Maurren Higa Maggi, Brazil – 7.26m (1999) – All-time #12
1 Brittney Reese, USA – 7.25m (2013) – All-time #13

Note: That’s a total of 70 wind-legal jumps of 7.25m or better.

Top 10 Wind-Legal Jumps of All Time (7.44m – 7.52m)

5 By Heike Drechsler (7.48m, 7.48m, 7.45, 7.45m, 7.44m)
3 By Jackie Joyner Kersee (7.49m, 7.49m, 7.45m)
2 By Galina Chistyakova (7.52m and 7.45m)

The USA clearly dominates the mens all time lists for the long jump, with 11 jumpers over 8.50m out of a total of 23 jumpers all-time over 8.50m. In the womens event, it’s the EUROPEAN athletes who dominate. There’s been 68 women over 7.00m, 9 of them come from the USA, while 53 come from Europe. Of the all-time top ten female jumpers, only two of them have taken place since the year 2000, and both jumps were by Russian athletes (2002 and 2004).

Womens Indoor Long Jump Statistics

WR = 7.37m, Heike Drechsler, Germany (1988)

17 Athletes have jumped 7.00m or better indoors

Top 3 jumpers all-time indoors are of the same nationality as the top three athletes all-time outdoors, GDR (Heike Drechsler), URS (Galina Chistyakova) and USA (Brittney Reese).

The only woman with an indoor PB over 7.00m, who hasn’t jumped a 7.00m PB for outdoors is Dawn Burrell (USA – 7.03m Indoors). Dawn has jumped 6.98m outdoors. The only two men with an 8.50m or better indoor PB who has not jumped an 8.50m or better PB outdoors are Sebastian Bayer of Germany (8.71m indoors and 8.49m outdoors) and Miguel Pate of the USA (8.59m indoors and 8.46m outdoors).

The Longest JUMPS of All Time – Men’s & Women’s Events…

The two longest jumps in long jump history happened on the same day in 1992 in Sestriere, Italy. Man did I love that meet. There’s been a total of 7 wind-aided 8.50m plus jumps in Sestriere, and 3 of them were 8.95m or better (8.95m, 8.96m, 8.99m). Here’s the jump details of Heike Drechsler and Mike Powell, who jumped the longest jumps of all time. Both of these jumps took place on the same day in 1992 (July 21^st 1992)

Heike Drechsler longest jump in history… 7.63m in Sestriere in 1992 +2.1m/s (11cms over the WR)
Mike Powell longest jump in history… 8.99m in Sestriere in 1992 +4.4m/s (4cms over the WR)

MALE VS FEMALE JUMP PERFORMANCES

*** All Time Number of Wind-Legal and Wind-Aided Jumps ***

Interestingly no nation has ever clean-sweeped at a world indoor championships, in either the men’s or women’s event. There’s only been one women’s world indoor championships with a winning jump of 7.15m or better (Brittney Reese, 7.23m in 2012). Reese is the only USA athlete to have jumped over 7.15m indoors. Jackie Joyner Kersee and Dawn Burrell are the other two USA athletes who have an indoor personal best of over 7.00m.

In the men’s event there’s been three world indoor championships won with 8.50m or better (1995, 1997 and 1999). In 1999 the silver medal was also won with a jump of over 8.50m (8.56m by Yago Lamela of Spain).

The best winning distance at an outdoor European championships is 8.47m by Andrew Howe of Italy from back in 2010, which broke Robert Emmiyan’s 1982 CR of 8.41m. The best winning distance at a European indoor championships is Sebastian Bayers 8.71m ER jump from 2009. His 8.71m jump won the competition by almost 50cms (8.71m to 8.22m). Bayer (8.71m) and Lamela (8.56m) are the only Europeans to have ever jumped over 8.50m indoors, and both did it at a championship event.

Women’s European Long Jump Championships – Outdoors

2002 – 2012 = None of the medallists during these years jumped over 7.00m
1998 – All three medallists jumped over 7.00m (7.16m, 7.11m and 7.06m)
1994 – 7.14m won (Heike Drechsler) – No one else jumped over 7.00m
1990 – 7.30m won (Heike Drechsler) – 7.02m won the silver medal
1986 – 7.27m won (Heike Drechsler) – 7.09m won the silver medal
1982 – 1966 – None of the medallists jumped over 7.00m

Heike Drechsler won 4 European outdoor titles in total (1998, 1994, 1990, 1986). Her 7.30m jump in 1990, still stands as the championship record (CR).

Heike Drechsler was the first woman to jump over 7.00m at a european indoor championships, when she jumped 7.18m (CR) at the 1986 european indoor championships. At the 1988 european indoor championships, both Drechsler (7.30m CR) and Chistyakova (7.24m) jumped over 7.00m. There’s not been any other championship with more than two medallists over 7.00m.

The only championships with 7.00m or better winning distances were at the1986, 1988, 1992, 1994, and 2013 championships. The top four athletes all-time, based on jump distance, at an European indoors are…

Heike Drechsler 7.30m CR
Galina Chityakova 7.24m
Darya Klishina 7.01m
Larysa Berezhna 7.00m

In the men’s long jump event, the only two competitions in history, that I’m aware of, were the top three athletes jumped 8.50m or further, are listed below…

1987 USA Track and Field Championships

San Jose, California, USA

Carl Lewis 8.65m
Larry Myricks 8.63m
Mike Conley 8.55m (wind-aided)

1991 USA Track and Field Championships

New York City, New York USA

Carl Lewis 8.64m
Mike Powell 8.63m
Larry Myricks 8.50m

Mens Long Jump World Championship Statistics

Men’s Long Jump Olympic Games Statistics

Bob Beacon’s winning jump of 8.90m won the 1968 Olympic gold medal by 0.71cms. The second place athlete was GDR athlete Klaus Beer, who jumped 8.19m. Ralph Boston of the USA took the Bronze medal with 8.16m. Ralph Boston won silver four years earlier in Tokyo, and four years prior to that in Rome 1960, he took the gold medal.

Women’s Long Jump World Championship Statistics

In the first 3 world championship finals, there was 4 jumpers in each final over 7.00m, for a total of 12 7.00m jumpers in the first 3 world championship finals. In the 11 championships since there has only been a total of 8 jumpers who have surpassed 7.00m in the finals. The winning bronze medal jumps from 1987 and 1991 would be enough to win gold in any championships since (1993 – 2013).

Women’s Long Jump Olympic Games Statistics

Carl Lewis’s Stats Versus Heike Drechsler’s Stats

It’s also interesting to note that Heike’s indoor world record jump is 15cms short of the outdoor world record and 11cms short of her outdoor personal best, while Carl’s indoor world record jump is 16cms short of the outdoor world record and just 8cms short of his outdoor personal best.

Carl had 13 years ranked with 8.50m or better, 10 of the years he was ranked at over 8.60m, and 6 of those years he was ranked at over 8.70m.

Heike had 11 years ranked with 8.15m or better, 9 of those years she was ranked at over 7.25m, and 7 of those years she was ranked with 7.35m or better.