Mike Powell vows to make Rio Olympics in long jump at age 52

Mike was in India last month.

Mike was in India last month, doing PR at a 10K.

When I checked in yesterday for the 100 at the San Diego USATF Open Championships, I asked the clerk: Is Mike Powell entered? She looked through her sheets and said: “I don’t see him.” Drat. I was hoping to watch the world record holder, at age 52, try to get a qualifying mark for the Olympic Trials. He says the current crop of elite long jumpers is “pathetic.” So why not him on the Rio team? According to a mid-May article out of India, Mike is aiming for an Olympic comeback: “I have watched these people jump at the World Championships last year and I know I can beat them,” he said. “No other sport has fallen behind the way the long jump has.” He also is quoted as saying: “I am the master of the long Jump, I am the Beethoven of the long jump. I am the Bach of the long jump. If they said they were coming back to write some music, you would not doubt them. Don’t doubt me. And the people who do doubt me, I say watch.” I say: When? He isn’t entered yet, says the status site.

Also from Mike Powell:

“I told my daughters that Daddy is going to the Olympics. I got to make it! That is my biggest motivation. It has to be done not only for my daughters, but for other people to know 50 is not old.”

The story continued:

This comeback is not been an overnight decision, the decision dates back to when Mike was invited to participate in a celebrity TV Long Jump competition in Japan in April of 2013, – the country where he posted his iconic world record leap of 8.95m in 1991.

In the audience was Carl Lewis, his long jump rival for so much of his career, and Willie Banks, his good friend and former triple jump world record holder.

Mike was invited to jump against the veteran long-jumper in Japan, a 37-year-old man.

Sharing the experience on the day it all changed, he recounted, “Here I was at 247 pounds jumping – like really jumping and two steps in and I am scared! Yet, because I was a World Record Holder and because I am Mike Powell, I jumped and I jumped a 5 metres 80, which was not my best but good enough for Carl to tell me it was not bad.

“But that was when I decided that I was not going to be this person any more, I was never not athletic and I head back home and I hit the treadmill, losing 35 pounds in six weeks.”

Working towards qualifying in the middle of June for the American Olympic team, Mike is confident of reaching the 8.15 qualifying mark of Rio 2016, confidence based on the fact that he was currently jumping 8.30 meters easily and was not worried about meeting the mark, but about his body holding up at the age of 52.

Continuing on, on his Olympic trials, Mike reinstated to the audience that he was not ‘trying’ to get to the Olympics but he was “going to” the Olympics and knew that he would get there also knowing that at 8.30 he was a sure medal contender.

Mike Powell has always believed in himself and knew he could one day beat the World Record before he actually did, sharing that in the 1989 national championships, he did have a jump that was 8.90 but a foul jump and from then knew that breaking the World Record was within his reach.

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June 12, 2016

6 Responses

  1. Tom Phillips - June 12, 2016

    Slow news day, Ken?

  2. Tom Sputo - June 12, 2016

    Mr. Powell. What? I can’t find a current mark for you? You say what? Huh? Before you worry about an 8.15 Olympic standard, how about an 8.05 for the Trials. Or how about just one meet with a mark? Yes, slow news day.

  3. Michael Walker - June 12, 2016

    8.15 is about 26’9″. For a 50 year old, 5.80 [19′]is pretty good but losing 35 pounds probably is not enough. Still, I always cheer for anyone who wants to try and hope that Mike makes it. Would be a great story.

  4. Fidel Bañuelos - June 12, 2016

    Agree with Waller. Will be a good story and will be rooting for him. But, it’s also a good way to pop an achilles…:).

  5. tb - June 12, 2016

    I hope he’s already bought tickets.

  6. Ken Stone - June 27, 2016

    No Mike Powell at the Trials:
    http://www.usatf.org/Events—Calendar/2016/U-S–Olympic-Team-Trials—Track—Field/Status-of-Entries.aspx

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