Arriving in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, triple jumper Jonathan Edwards made an unlikely purchase in duty free.
He decided to pick up a pair of sunglasses – not for sunning himself on the city’s ample and attractive coastline, but because he wanted them for the upcoming world championships, the biggest event on the track and field calendar that year.
Edwards was terrified, and the glasses, he reasoned, would mask that fear from his other competitors.
“I thought I could easily not win,” recalls Edwards, who entered the 1995 world championships in the form of his life. “The potential was there for me not to win, and that would be a disaster, even though I jumped so well throughout the year.”
He didn’t have to worry. Edwards broke his own world record twice on that day, jumping a gargantuan 18 meters and 29 centimeters (slightly over 60 feet) with his second attempt. His next closest rival, Bermuda’s Brian Wellman, couldn’t get within half a meter (1.64 feet).
Thursday marks exactly 30 years since Edwards hopped, skipped and jumped his way into the history books, making it one of track and field’s longest-standing records.
Only American Christian Taylor has come within 10 centimeters (about 3.94 inches) of the record since then, and only eight athletes in history have jumped beyond 18 meters (roughly 5
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