Mike Powell (athlete)

Medal record
Powell at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Men's athletics
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Silver	1988 Seoul	Long jump
Silver	1992 Barcelona	Long jump
World Championships
Gold	1991 Tokyo	Long jump
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	Long jump
Bronze	1995 Gothenburg	Long jump

Michael ("Mike") Anthony Powell born November 10, 1963 (1963-11-10) (age 48) is a former American track and field athlete, and the holder of the long jump world record.

Mike Powell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At the 1991 World Championships in Athletics (Tokyo), he broke Bob Beamon's almost 23-year-old long jump world record by 5 cm (2 inches), leaping 8.95 m (29 ft 4½ in). The world record still stands. His feat earned him the James E. Sullivan Award and BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 1991. He also holds the longest non-legal jump of 8.99 m (wind-aided +4.4) set at high altitude in Sestriere, Italy in 1992.^[1]

Powell won long jump silver medals at both the 1988 Olympics and 1992 Olympics. As well as his famous 1991 victory, he won the long jump again at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, and came third at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics.

After the 1996 Olympics, Powell retired. He returned in 2001 with a goal of competing in the 2004 Olympics, but did not make the American team.

Powell, who attended Edgewood High School in West Covina, California, went on to attend the University of California, Irvine and later transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles, is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Powell is currently an analyst for Yahoo! Sports Olympic Track & Field coverage.

He stated in July 2009 that he intended to return to competition with the aim of breaking Tapani Taavitsainen's Masters over-45 world record in the long jump.^[2]

References

• Biography at USATF

1. ^ http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=n/season=0/sex=M/all=y/legal=A/disc=LJ/detail.html
2. ^ Minshull, Phil (2009-07-07). Mike Powell aims to return to competition. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-07-23.

External links

• IAAF profile for Mike Powell

Records
Preceded by Bob Beamon	Men's Long Jump World Record Holder August 30, 1991 –	Succeeded by Incumbent
Sporting positions
Preceded by Larry Myricks	Men's Long Jump Best Year Performance 1990 — 1991	Succeeded by Carl Lewis
Preceded by Carl Lewis	Men's Long Jump Best Year Performance 1993	Succeeded by Erick Walder

Persondata
Name	Powell, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1963-11-10
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death