Talk:Bob Beamon

message: : I edited Lynn Davies nationality from "Wales" to "Great Britain" because Wales does not send a separate team to the the Olympics. Welsh participants (including those in 1968) compete on a combined Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. Baclightning 18:30, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lynn Davies' nationality 

message: Hey guys: he was an African American. How on earth can that very important fact have been left out entirely???? It's not mentioned anywhere in the article. I am simply dumbfounded. 
Okay, I've inserted this fact in the Intro, along with adding the article to :Category:African American track and field athletes. Cgingold 07:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It is not a high priority to include somebody's ethnic background, though I won't remove it because it's not bad at all. However, look at various articles about other notable individuals, including athletes. Michael Jordan is not an "African American basketball player" nor is Mark McGwire a "Caucasian baseball player". Only when ethnic background is a crucial part of the actions that cause the individual's notability should mention of ethnicity be noted. For example, Rosa Parks is notable because of her defiance of segregation laws, which is directly linked to her status as an African American. Mipchunk 07:52, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I would disagree. This fact is very important especially if you're trying to research notable people and find images and other related things about them. These things are wholly important in painting a picture of a person's roots.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.128.110.85 (talk) 19:54, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  He's African American 

message: It says in the article that Bob Beamon's 8.90 still is the second longest jump in history. The fact is that Mike Powell beat Beamon's world record at the World Championship in Tokyo 1991 and that Carl Lewis took the silver by jumping 8.91. So what does that make Beamon's effort in a historical perspective?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.102.211.247 (talk) 22:23, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The Lewis jump was wind-aided (over 2 meters/sec), so ineligible for record purposes.--Fizbin (talk) 23:09, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Second longest jump of all times 

message: The following sentence in the "1968 Summer Olympics" section is unsourced and seems to be saying something a bit different from what was (presumably) intended.  
:"When the announcer called out the distance for the jump, Beamon — unfamiliar with metric measurements — wasn't affected by it"
It seems doubtful (to me), that a world-class long jumper, competing in (presumably) not-his-first International Track and Field event, would be so unfamiliar with "the metric measurements" that he did not understand that he had broken the world record.  If the World Record had been 8.35m and his jump was 8.9m, I believe we can assume that he understood that 8.9 is greater than 8.35 - regardless of what system of units is being used.  I presume what the author might have been trying to say is something more like,
:"When the announcer called out the distance for the jump, Beamon — unpracticed at quickly converting metric measurements — did not immediately grasp by how much he had bested the previous world record."
or maybe even,
:"When the announcer called out the distance for the jump, Beamon — perhaps mistrusting his hearing or his ability to correctly convert metric to English units — did not immediately realize that he had bested the previous world record by nearly two feet."
But I have no source or citation to support either of these statements / presumptions either so I have flagged the statement as "needs citation" and leave it to others to seek out such a citation or (alternatively) remove the statement from this article. Pugetbill (talk) 22:05, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Perhaps you are just not familiar with how clueless or ignorant the average american is to metric measurements, even now.  In Beamon's day it was worse.  His international competition experience outside of the USA was minimal if any existed.  I can't find any.  He was a collegiate athlete until earlier that year, then competed in USA Invitational events.  At the time, everything was imperial.  AAU, NCAA and even NFHS (High Schools) didn't convert to metric for another decade.  Even after that, many resist and are (maybe not elite athletes on the European circuit) still clueless to metric measurement. Trackinfo (talk) 00:13, 19 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need citation for "Beamon('s) — unfamiliar(ity) with metric measurements..." 

message: Would it infringe some vitally important WP policy if, in addition to the metric measures of these various jumps currently provided in the article, their equivalents in feet and inches were also quoted in parentheses?  In Beamon's country, these are still the measurements most people are familiar with on a day-to-day basis.....  Nandt1 (talk) 12:05, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: And in feet and inches?

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The core of this article is about BB's first jump in the Olympic finals.  It goes on to say that his legs gave out upon learning the enormity of his effort.  Did he even try to do his next two jumps? Kdammers (talk) 07:54, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Further jumps 

message: I’m surprised there’s no mention that the altitude of Mexico City (2,240 meters or 7,350 ft) was probably a major factor in Beamon breaking the record by that much. The air is much thinner at that altitude, allowing for farther jumps. Tvx1 22:17, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Altitude of world record venue.