I was wondering was going to mention that very relevant point. The Mexico City altitude had a significant effect on that jump.
How? I can see how the strong tailwind helped his jump, but not sure how altitude does much.
Just came across an interesting analysis:
Of the many variables involved in jumping, altitude can affect only one of them -- horizontal velocity due to the resistance of air. A trailing wind can also reduce the apparent air resistance. Only the athlete can influence any of the other variables.
Uber-track fan and physicist Jonas Murieka has created a wind/altitude calculator that most experts in the running world subscribe to. His calculations suggest that Mexico City's altitude is responsible for only 0.067s (or .67 percent) improvement in 10.0 sprint times.
http://myweb.lmu.edu/jmureika/track/wind/index.html
Beamon's one jump improvement was a 6.6% improvement. Once. No one else had an improvement that was 10 TIMES what you would expect due to the altitude. In fact, I'm willing to bet that one one else in recorded history has made a 6.6% improvement in a long just simply by jumping at a high altitude location.
At sea level, most experts say that a 2.0 m/s tailwind is worth 0.1 seconds in a 100m race, neatly matching the results of Jona's calculator. As one would expect the effect of a 2.0m/s tailwind at 2200 meter altitude would probably be less. Jona's calculator puts it at .76s. The cumulative effect of BOTH altitude and 2.0m/s tailwind would be only 0.143s (1.43 percent). You cannot translate a possible increase of 1.43 percent in horizontal velocity to the actual jump result of 6.6 percent and claim it was all due to the altitude/wind.
Beamon just popped one for the ages. Very simple.
If you go to the analysis of Beamons jump with both Carl Lewis's and Mike Powell's record jumps you'll find that Powell's jump was produced with a 25 degree angle of trajectory, and a slower speed than Lewis'. King Carl's best jump had a 21 degree angle of trajectory, but faster Hv (no kidding?). Reports that I've heard, was that Beamon's jump he had an angle of trajectory of 35 DEGREES! Anecdotally, people couldn't believe how high Beamon was in the air.
It is so easy for some to discount the physics and the uniqueness of Beamons singular jump, and attribute it to the altitude, which doesn't discriminate over who she will bless? Beamon's PR going into The Olympics (8.33) was 2cm short of the WR (8.35) that was shared by Ralph Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesjan. How come altitude discrimated against THEM but helped only Beamon? How come none of the sprinters made 6.6 percent improvements in their events -- for 10.0/20.0 times, 6.6% improvement means they should have run 9.34 and 18.67.
Neither altitude nor wind can account for more than 21 percent of Beamons jump.
deadspin.com
