Beamon breaking that record is obviously amazing, but it was at altitude. If you can find it, you should watch a clip of the 1991 Long Jump final at the WC in Tokyo between Carl Lewis and Mike Powell where Powell breaks the WR. Carl Lewis jumped 8.91 (which was longer than Beamon's record of 8.90, but wind-aided, but also at low altitude), and then two more jumps of over 29 feet (8.87 and 8.84).

Then, in the same meet, Lewis breaks the WR in the 100 meters. There used to be a video set to music of the jumps the two took.

Found it:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ybEs3j_MmrA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks for that. I was a kid when Beamon set his record. It was in high school that I learned about the intricacies of jumping at altitude. Although I don't recall if other long jumpers broke or even came close to existing world record of the time.

I recall the Carl Lewis / Powell dual well.

No one sniffed it before Lewis and Powell and no one has sniffed even Beamon's records since the end of Powell's prime. It was before my time, but I was always a big Carl Lewis fan, and I remember reading about him getting booed because there was hype that he might break Beamon's record in '84. After he hit his first jump, which was a foot short of the record, he passed on his other attempts because he still had three other events and he knew no one could approach even 28' flat.

Humans do two things very very well. Throw with accuracy and power and extremely high endurance.

Stronger apes can't throw with any power approaching a normal human not to mention being accurate with a throw. We also can run at a pretty quick pace for far longer than many animals and we recover quicker.

Bolt is insane. Fools not human.

KD checking out the women of beach volleyball

There's a pretty wide array of body types among female gymnasts this year. We've got the 41 year-old Uzbek, which is amazing, little tiny Chinese who cannot possibly be the age they claim, and some Swiss woman who's built like a fullback.

I see Walsh-Jennings butt crack.


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No complaint here.

Yah, the endurance part is an enormous part of human potential. Most of us domesticated couch potatoes do not have the endurance potential of our species, and a ton of animals can get away from us over short distances, but Humans can, eventually given enough time, run down almost anything. As long as we know where the animal went, humans can even run down and kill a horse. If you are a land creature who can't fly, then the only defense against a high-endurance human who is hunting you, assuming you can't survive a confrontation, is to misdirect the human or hide.

edit: I looked it up, and there may be a few animals I'm leaving out, but the only animals we pretty much know for sure can outlast a human in endurance to the point where we'll never catch them are antilopes and ostriches. A human hunting those two creatures would have to ambush them.

Read on this a bit more, and apparently environment matters too. We are still amazing in cold weather, but in cold weather several more animals (including sled dogs and wolves) have a good chance to outlast us. In hot weather, almost no land animal other than antilopes, ostriches, and maybe a couple other creatures have any hope of outrunning a human.

The reason is we have a freaking absurd number of sweat glands, far more than most animals, keeping us cool while we run (on top of our high endurance). Other animals with high endurance eventually overheat and just can't run anymore without passing out. We evolved to run down prey, not in short bursts, but eventually on a grassy plain where there's nowhere to hide.

I bet that explains why the counter at Wendy's has that maze that lengthens the distance between you and your order.

It was.




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Michael Johnson said it wouldn't be broken this Olympics too.

This kid is very young too.



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**** Official Rio Olympics Thread****
 

His speed wouldn't translate into football. His 40 time wouldn't blow you away. His special ability is sustaining his speed after 50 meters. How often would he need that in the NFL?

Here is where he is at approximately 40 yards. Gatlin is ahead of him.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...9877b3b7b2.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...511f19b4e6.jpg



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