At the 1968 World Olympics in Mexico, Bob Beamon did more than set another record. On his first jump, Beamon landed a great jump. He hopped out of the long jump pit full of sand and walked off waiting for his results. They didn’t come, though. Ten minutes went by and then fifteen. He thought that he might have broken the record by a couple inches and the judges were trying to confirm it and be thorough. One of his teammates told him he had jumped exceedingly far and definitely broke the world record for long jump leap by more than a couple inches.
It took so long to get the results of the jump; because Beamon jumped so far they couldn’t measure it with what they had. They had to bring in a manual tape measure to get an accurate distance measured. The previous world record for long jump leap had been 21 feet and ¾ inches. Beamon didn’t just slightly beat that record, he blew it away with no one to come anywhere near his jump. He leapt 29 feet 2.5 inches. It was astounding. It became known as the leap of the century.