Irving Saladino
Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda is a Panamanian former long jumper. He was Olympic champion, having won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is Panama's first and only Olympic gold medalist, he was world champion in the long jump in 2007. He represented his country at three straight Olympics, from 2004 to 2012, competed at four World Championships in Athletics from 2005 to 2011. Amongst his honours are a silver medal from the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and gold medals at the Pan American Games, Central American and Caribbean Games, Central American Games, South American Games, the IAAF World Cup and the Ibero-American Championships in Athletics, he holds a long jump best of 8.73 m, set in 2008. He ranks in the all-time top ten for the event, he had the longest jumps in the world in the 2008 seasons. Saladino was born in Colón Province, Panama. At the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships he finished second with a new South American indoor record of 8.29 metres. In 2006 he won five out of six Golden League events in the same season, which earned him a total of $83,333.
His only defeat was in Paris. With 8.56 metres achieved in May 2006 he became the South American record holder. The 2006 world leader in the long jump, Saladino launched his 2007 season with the farthest leap of the year, 8.53 m, to capture the victory at the "Grande Prêmio Rio Caixa de Atletismo", held in Rio de Janeiro on May 13, 2007. On 24 May 2008, Saladino achieved a new personal record. During the FBK Games in Hengelo, Saladino jumped with his first attempt to 8.73 m. He carried the flag for his native country at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 30 August 2007 Saladino became the World Champion in Osaka, he led with the mark of 8.30 metres from his second attempt improved to 8.46 m, until the penultimate jump of the contest, when he was overtaken by Andrew Howe who set as mark 8.47 m. Saladino was able to earn the gold medal on the last attempt of the contest, in which he jumped 8.57 m. Saladino competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he made history in Central America and his country, Panama, by winning the gold medal in the long jump competition on 18 August 2008, with a jump of 8.34 meters, giving Panama their first Olympic medal since the 1948 Summer Olympics, their first gold ever.
This is the first Olympic gold medal won in a men's event by an athlete from Central America. On 21 August 2008 after winning Olympic gold, he arrived to Panama a national hero. Government offices and public schools were closed in honor of him so that public servants were able to attend a parade through Panama City. At a welcoming ceremony, Panamanian boxing legend Roberto Durán presented the Olympic gold medal to Irving Saladino for a second time. Martin Torrijos, President of Panama, announced a decree to name a sports facility in the Villa Deportiva in Juan Díaz after Saladino and granted a check to him for 50,000 U. S. dollars. Ruben Blades performed the song "Patria" in front of thousands of cheering Panamanians. Saladino qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and he was chosen to be Panama's flag bearer, he was eliminated early after underperforming due to injury. Saladino's performances declined after the 2011, although he managed to clear 8.16 m in the 2014 season, he announced his retirement that August.
Long jump: 8.73 m – Hengelo, Netherlands, 24 May 2008 Triple jump: 14.51 m – San José, Costa Rica, 11 October 2002 Irving Saladino at IAAF Irving Saladino at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com Media related to Irving Saladino at Wikimedia Commons
Myer Prinstein
Myer Prinstein was a Polish American track and field athlete and member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He held the world record for the long jump and won gold medals in three Olympic Games for the long jump and triple jump. Prinstein was born in Szczuczyn, in Russian-ruled Poland, his parents and Julia Prinstein, emigrated to New York City in 1883 and soon thereafter moved to Syracuse, New York, where Myer was raised. They had four sons. Myer was the third child. Prinstein was captain of the Syracuse University track team, graduated with a law degree. Prinstein set a long jump world record of 7.235 m in New York on June 11, 1898. However, the record was soon broken, first by William Newburn of Ireland on June 18, 1898, by Alvin Kraenzlein on May 26, 1899. On April 28, 1900, Prinstein set a new record of 7.50 m in Philadelphia. Four months on August 29, 1900, this record was broken by Peter O'Connor of Ireland. Prinstein won the silver medal in the long jump at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, losing to Alvin Kraenzlein after being denied permission by Syracuse officials to compete in the final because it was contested on a Sunday – despite the fact that Prinstein was a Jew, Kraenzlein, a Christian, did compete.
The two had had an informal agreement not to compete on Sunday, when Prinstein learned that Kraenzlein had competed he became angry and, depending on the account, punched Kraenzlein in the face or was restrained from doing so. The following day, he won the gold medal in the hop and jump, beating 1896 champion James Connolly with a leap of 14.47 meters which set the Olympic Record. Competing as a member of the Irish American Athletic Club in St. Louis 1904 he won both the long jump and the hop and jump on the same day, the only athlete to win both events in the same games, he came 5th in both the 60 m and 400 m dash. In Athens 1906 he again won the long jump competition, beating the world record holder, Peter O'Connor; the only judge for the competition was Matthew Halpin, manager of the American team. O'Connor was overruled, he continued to protest Halpin's decisions through the remainder of the competition. The distances were not announced until the end of the competition; when they were, Prinstein had won with his first jump.
Prinstein did not compete in the Olympics after 1906. He practiced law in Jamaica and became a businessman, he died in 1925 at age 46 of a heart ailment at New York. Myer Prinstein was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. List of Jewish American athletes List of select Jewish track and field athletes Greenberg, Stan. Olympic Games: The Records. London: Guinness Books. ISBN 0-85112-896-3. Kieran, John; the Story of the Olympic Games. C. to 1976. Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company. ISBN 0-397-01168-7. Jewish community of Szczuczyn Myer Prinstein at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com Myer Prinstein at the International Olympic Committee Winged Fist Organization
Edward Gourdin
Edward Orval "Ned" Gourdin was an American athlete and jurist. He was the first man in history to make 25 feet in the long jump and the first African-American and the first Native-American to be appointed a Superior Court judge in New England, he won the silver medal in the long jump at the 1924 Summer Olympics in France. Following his return from the Olympics, Gourdin was admitted to the bar, he left his law practice in 1935 to serve as Assistant United States Attorney from Massachusetts. In 1951 he was appointed to the Roxbury District Court. On July 22, 1958, he was appointed by governor Foster Furcolo to serve on the Massachusetts Superior Court, the Commonwealth's second highest court, he remained on the court until his death on July 22, 1966. Gourdin attended Harvard University, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the "horizontal jumps"; this event has a history in the Ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympic event for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948. At the elite level, competitors run down a runway and jump as far as they can from a wooden board 20 cm or 8 inches wide, built flush with the runway into a pit filled with finely ground gravel or sand. If the competitor starts the leap with any part of the foot past the foul line, the jump is declared a foul and no distance is recorded. A layer of plasticine is placed after the board to detect this occurrence. An official will watch the jump and make the determination; the competitor can initiate the jump from any point behind the foul line. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the competitor to get as close to the foul line as possible.
Competitors are allowed to place two marks along the side of the runway in order to assist them to jump accurately. At a lesser meet and facilities, the plasticine will not exist, the runway might be a different surface or jumpers may initiate their jump from a painted or taped mark on the runway. At a smaller meet, the number of attempts might be limited to four or three; each competitor has a set number of attempts. That would be three trials, with three additional jumps being awarded to the best 8 or 9 competitors. All legal marks will be recorded but only the longest legal jump counts towards the results; the competitor with the longest legal jump at the end of competition is declared the winner. In the event of an exact tie comparing the next best jumps of the tied competitors will be used to determine place. In a large, multi-day elite competition, a set number of competitors will advance to the final round, determined in advance by the meet management. A set of 3 trial round jumps will be held in order to select those finalists.
It is standard practice to allow at a minimum, one more competitor than the number of scoring positions to return to the final round, though 12 plus ties and automatic qualifying distances are potential factors.. For record purposes, the maximum accepted; the long jump is the only known jumping event of Ancient Greece's original Olympics' pentathlon events. All events that occurred at the Olympic Games were supposed to act as a form of training for warfare; the long jump emerged because it mirrored the crossing of obstacles such as streams and ravines. After investigating the surviving depictions of the ancient event it is believed that unlike the modern event, athletes were only allowed a short running start; the athletes carried a weight in each hand. These weights were swung forward, it was believed that the jumper would throw the weights behind him in midair to increase his forward momentum. Swinging them down and back at the end of the jump would change the athlete's center of gravity and allow the athlete to stretch his legs outward, increasing his distance.
The jump itself was made from the bater. It was most a simple board placed on the stadium track, removed after the event; the jumpers would land in. The idea that this was a pit full of sand is wrong. Sand in the jumping pit is a modern invention; the skamma was a temporary area dug up for that occasion and not something that remained over time. The long jump was considered one of the most difficult of the events held at the Games since a great deal of skill was required. Music was played during the jump and Philostratus says that pipes at times would accompany the jump so as to provide a rhythm for the complex movements of the halteres by the athlete. Philostratus is quoted as saying, "The rules regard jumping as the most difficult of the competitions, they allow the jumper to be given advantages in rhythm by the use of the flute, in weight by the use of the halter." Most notable in the ancient sport was a man called Chionis, who in the 656 BC Olympics staged a jump of 7.05 metres. There has been some argument by modern scholars over the long jump.
Some have attempted to recreate it as a triple jump. The images provide the only evidence for the action so it is more well received that it was much like today's long jump; the main reason some want to call it a triple jump is the presence of a source that claims there once was a fifty-five ancient foot jump done by a man named Phayllos. The long jump has been part of modern Olympic competition since the inception of the Games in 1896. In 1914, Dr. Harry Eaton Stewart recommended the "running broad jump" as a standardized track and field event for women. However, it was not until 1948 that the women's long jump was
Ralph Boston
Ralph Harold Boston is a retired American track athlete, he is best remembered for the long jump, in which he was the first person to break the 27 feet barrier. Boston was born in Mississippi; as a student at Tennessee State University, he won the 1960 National Collegiate Athletic Association title in the long jump. In August of the same year, he broke the world record in the event, held by Jesse Owens for 25 years, at the Mt. SAC Relays; the world record holder, he improved the mark past 27 feet, jumping 27' 1/2" at the Modesto Relays on May 27, 1961. He qualified for the Summer Olympics in Rome, where he took the gold medal in the long jump, setting the Olympic record at 8.12 m, while narrowly defeating American teammate Bo Roberson by a mere centimeter. Boston won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship in the long jump six times in a row from 1961 to 1966, he had the longest triple jump for an American in 1963. He returned to the Tokyo Olympics as the world record holder after losing the record to Igor Ter-Ovanesyan regaining the record a couple of months before the games, first in Kingston and improving it at the 1964 Olympic Trials.
In the Olympic final, Boston exchanged the lead with Ter-Ovanesyan. Going into the fifth round, Boston was leading but fouled while both Lynn Davies and Ter-Ovanesyan jumped past him. On his final jump, he was able to jump past Ter-Ovanesyan, but could not catch Davies and ended winning the silver medal. Boston's final record improvement to 8.35m was again at the 1965 Modesto Relays. It was tied at altitude by Ter-Ovanesyan in 1967. In 1967, he lost the national title to Jerry Proctor; when rival Bob Beamon was suspended from the University of Texas at El Paso, for refusing to compete against Brigham Young University, alleging it had racist policies, Boston began to coach him unofficially. Beamon took the 1968 National Championships. At the 1968 Olympics, Boston watched. Boston was 29 years old, he retired from competitions shortly thereafter. He moved to Knoxville and worked for the University of Tennessee as Coordinator of Minority Affairs and Assistant Dean of Students from 1968 to 1975, he was the field event reporter for the CBS Sports Spectacular coverage of domestic track and field events.
He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and into the U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985. A Los Angeles Times article on Boston from August 2, 2010, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his initial world record, described him as a divorced great-grandfather, writing an autobiography, he divides his time between Atlanta and Knoxville
Bob Beamon
Robert Beamon is an American former track and field athlete, best known for his world record in the long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. He broke the existing record by a margin of 55 cm and his world record stood for 23 years until it was broken in 1991 by Mike Powell; the jump the second longest wind legal jump in history. Robert Beamon was born in South Jamaica, New York; when he was attending Jamaica High School he was discovered by a renowned track coach. Beamon became part of the All-American track and field team. Beamon would begin his college career at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, to be close to his ill grandmother. After her death, he would transfer to the University of Texas at El Paso where he received a track and field scholarship. In 1965 Beamon set a national high school triple jump record and was second in the nation in the long jump. In 1967 he won the AAU indoor title and earned a silver medal at the Pan American Games, both in the long jump.
Beamon was suspended from the University of Texas at El Paso for participating in a boycott of competition with Brigham Young University because of the Book of Mormon's teaching about blacks. Fellow Olympian Ralph Boston became his unofficial coach. Beamon entered the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City as the favorite to win the gold medal, having won 22 of the 23 meets he had competed in that year, including a career best of 8.33 m and a world's best of 8.39 m, ineligible for the record books due to excessive wind assistance. That year he won the AAU and NCAA indoor long jump and triple jump titles, as well as the AAU outdoor long jump title, he came close to overstepping on his first two attempts in qualifying. With only one chance left, Beamon re-measured his approach run from a spot in front of the board and made a fair jump that advanced him to the final. There he faced the two previous gold-medal winners, American Ralph Boston and Lynn Davies of Great Britain, twice bronze medallist Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the Soviet Union.
On October 18, Beamon set a world record for the long jump with a first jump of 8.90 m, bettering the existing record by 55 cm. When the announcer called out the distance for the jump, Beamon — unfamiliar with metric measurements — still did not realize what he had done; when his teammate and coach Ralph Boston told him that he had broken the world record by nearly two feet, his legs gave way and an astonished and overwhelmed Beamon suffered a brief cataplexy attack brought on by the emotional shock, collapsed to his knees, his body unable to support itself, placing his hands over his face. The defending Olympic champion Lynn Davies told Beamon, "You have destroyed this event", in sports jargon, a new adjective – Beamonesque – came into use to describe spectacular feats. Prior to Beamon's jump, the world record had been broken thirteen times since 1901, with an average increase of 6 cm and the largest increase being 15 cm, his world record stood for 23 years until it was broken in 1991 when Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m at the World Championships in Tokyo, but Beamon's jump is still the Olympic record and 50 years remains the second longest wind legal jump in history.
One journalist called Beamon "the man who saw lightning." Sports journalist Dick Schaap wrote a book about The Perfect Jump. Beamon landed his jump near the far end of the sand pit but the optical device, installed to measure jump distances was not designed to measure a jump of such length; this forced the officials to measure the jump manually. Beamon's world-record jump was named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sports moments of the 20th century. Shortly after the Mexico City Olympics, Beamon was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the 15th round of the 1969 NBA draft but never played in an NBA game. In 1972 he graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in sociology. Beamon has worked in a variety of roles to promote youth athleticism, including collaborations with former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Beamon's work at the athletic programs of several universities, he is a graphic artist with work exhibited by the Art of the Olympians, was the former chief executive of the Art of the Olympians Museum in Fort Myers, Florida.
Beamon is in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, when the United States Olympic Hall of Fame started to induct athletes in 1983, Beamon was one of the first inductees. There is a Bob Beamon St. in El Paso, TX. Beamon and Milana Walter Beamon.. The Man Who Could Fly: The Bob Beamon Story. Columbus, MS: Genesis Press. ISBN 1-885478-89-5. Schaap, Dick.. The Perfect Jump. New York, NY: New American Library. Video of Jump on YouTube
Gold medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have been awarded in the arts, for example, by the Royal Danish Academy as a symbol of an award to give an outstanding student some financial freedom. Others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including UNESCO and various academic societies. While some gold medals are solid gold, others are gold-plated or silver-gilt, like those of the Olympic Games, the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Prize medal. Nobel Prize medals consist of 18 karat green gold plated with 24 karat gold. Before 1980 they were struck in 23 karat gold. Before the establishment of standard military awards, e.g. the Medal of Honor, it was common practice to have a medal specially created to provide national recognition for a significant military or naval victory or accomplishment.
In the United States, Congress would enact a resolution asking the President to reward those responsible. The commanding officer would receive his officers silver medals. Medals have been given as prizes in various types of competitive activities athletics. Traditionally, medals are made of the following metals: Gold Silver BronzeOccasionally, Platinum medals can be awarded; these metals designate the first three Ages of Man in Greek mythology: the Golden Age, when men lived among the gods, the Silver Age, where youth lasted a hundred years, the Bronze Age, the era of heroes. The custom of awarding the sequence of gold and bronze medals for the first three highest achievers dates from at least the 18th century, with the National Association of Amateur Athletes in the United States awarding such medals as early as 1884; this standard was adopted for Olympic competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics. At the 1896 event, silver was awarded to winners and bronze to runners-up, while at 1900 other prizes were given, not medals.
At the modern Olympic Games, winners of a sporting discipline receive a gold medal in recognition of their achievement. At the Ancient Olympic Games only one winner per event was crowned with kotinos, an olive wreath made of wild olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Aristophanes in Plutus makes a remark why victorious athletes are crowned with wreath made of wild olive instead of gold. Herodotus describes a story that explains why there were only a few Greek men at the Battle of Thermopylae since "all other men were participating in the Olympic Games" and that the prize for the winner was "an olive-wreath"; when Tigranes, an Armenian general learned this, he uttered to his leader: "Good heavens! What kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour". Hence medals were not awarded at the ancient Olympic Games. At the 1896 Summer Olympics, winners received a silver medal and the second-place finisher received a bronze medal.
In 1900, most winners received trophies instead of medals. The next three Olympics awarded the winners solid gold medals, but the medals themselves were smaller; the use of gold declined with the onset of the First World War and with the onset of the Second World War. The last series of Olympic medals to be made of solid gold were awarded at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Olympic Gold medals are required to be made from at least 92.5% silver, must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold. All Olympic medals must be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick. Minting the medals is the responsibility of the Olympic host. From 1928 through 1968 the design was always the same: the obverse showed a generic design by Florentine artist Giuseppe Cassioli of Greek goddess Nike with Rome's Colloseum in the background and text naming the host city. From the 1972 Summer Olympics through 2000, Cassioli's design remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassioli's design showed a Roman amphitheater for what were Greek games, a new obverse design was commissioned for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
For the 2008 Beijing Olympics medals had a diameter of 70mm and were 6mm thick, with the front displaying a winged figure of victory and the back showed a Beijing Olympics symbol surrounded by an inset jade circle. Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design; the silver and bronze medals have always borne the same designs. The award of a gold medal coupled with the award of silver and bronze medals to the next place finishers, has been adopted in other sports competitions and in other competitive fields, such as music and writing, as well as some competitive games. Bronze medals are awarded only to third place, but in some contests there is some variety, such as International barbershop music contests where bronze medals are awarded for third and fifth place. List of gold medal awards Medals: Going For Gold! - Minerals Council of Australia Royal Canadian Mint Interactive 3D Tour of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Medals
