World record holder Mike Powell talks to Centre College track and cross country coach Lisa Owens before a camp session Thursday. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Mike Powell is a two-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist in the long jump. That’s impressive but that was not the reason I was a little bit in awe of him Thursday when I talked to him at the Maximum Velocity Track & Field Academy at Centre College.
What makes him so special is that he has the world record in the long jump — 29 feet, 4 1/2 inches. And he set that in 1991 — 31 years ago — at the World Championships in Tokyo when he beat Bob Beamon’s 23-year old long jump record by two inches. He also has the longest non-legal jump of 29-5 3/4 because it was wind-aided in Italy in 1992.
Powell admits he thought someone would “have gotten” his record by now.
“It’s not because of a lack of talent. There have been guys who could have done it. But I had a cheat sheet — I was competing against Carl Lewis who was the best,” Powell said.
Lewis just missed breaking Beamon’s mark and had the third best long jump ever in the meet but could not beat Powell this time. Lewis was on a 10-year undefeated streak and had won the previous two world titles and Olympic gold medals. Powell knew he had been closing the gap on Lewis but was not sure even a world-record jump would be enough to beat lewis.
“I watched and learned from him. I was also an incredible competitor and didn’t want to lose,” Powell said. “Everybody was conditioned to know that even if you got in front, he was going to come back and get you. That’s why even after I broke the world record that took 23 years to break, I fully expected him to pass it on the next jump and then I had it in my mind I would be ready to go 29-10 and just hope he didn’t go 30.”
Now he’s heading to Tampere, Finland, for the 24th World Masters Athletics Championships in late June and early July. He plans to break the Masters age group record of 21-4 (the American record in 20-1 1/2).
“I definitely can jump 22 (feet),” he said Thursday. “I have been training to get myself ready. It’s going to take some effort, but it is doable.”
Believing in yourself is a message he stresses to the 120 camp participants here. He said he always had to prove himself and noted he was cut from his freshman basketball team (Powell competed in the 1992–93 Foot Locker Slam Fest and successfully dunked from the free throw line). He was told he would never be an Olympian or world record holder.
He’s one of a group of Olympic clinicians at the camp helping campers in their speciality.
“We all feel like if we had a camp like this when we were young, it would not necessarily have made it easier but it could have made us much better,” Powell said. “We want the kids to realize they have Olympians in front of them telling them they can be good.”
“The people hosting this camp take really good care of us and make us feel like we are at home. Every time I have been here the kids have been great. For us, it is a chance for old friends to hang out. Sometimes I think we have more fun than the kids but it is just a really great camp for everyone.”
