Ralph Harold Boston was an American track athlete who received three Olympic medals and became the first person to break the 27 feet (8.2 m) barrier in the long jump.
Boston at the 1960 Olympics
Ralph Boston, Lynn Davies, and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan at the 1964 Summer Olympics
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff 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.
Long jump at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships
An indicator of wind direction and a device for measuring wind speed (here +2.6 m/s) along a run-up track
Halteres used in athletic games in ancient Greece
An athlete performing the long jump as part of the heptathlon at the 2013 French Athletics Championships at Stade Charléty in Paris