Carl Lewis: “World Athletics are trying to erase Mike Powell’s world record”

The nine-time Olympic and eight-time world champion on why he’s so troubled by World Athletics’ long jump proposals, why athletics needs an overhaul in its outlook and why the way it’s governed should be reconsidered

Cast your mind back to the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, when Mike Powell and Carl Lewis took the long jump to new levels. Lewis, the reigning double Olympic and world champion, flew out to a wind-assisted 8.91m in the fifth round, surpassing Bob Beamon’s superlative 8.90m from the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

The then 30-year-old had won his previous 65 long jump competitions, spanning a decade, but even he was astonished at the magnitude of his achievement, raising both arms above his head with a look of shock on his face.

Powell had taken silver in the long jump behind Lewis at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and, at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, lost to his compatriot by just four centimetres. One year on, in the muggy night air of the Japanese capital, Powell knew he had an opportunity to reach the top step of the podium. Still feeling aggrieved that his fourth-round effort was ruled out as a foul, he charged down the runway and catapulted himself into the night sky.

Eventually, he landed in the pit, just short of the nine-metre mark. He waited and stared at the screen for confirmation of just how far he had travelled. Suddenly, the crowd erupted and Powell, with his knees almost touching his chest due to the excitement, danced his way around the outside lane of the track. The mark? 8.95m.

Lewis responded with 8.87m in his final round but it wasn’t enough. Powell was the world champion after what had been the greatest men’s long jump competition in history.

It still is. No athlete has managed to get within 20cm of Powell’s mark, Dwight Phillips coming the closest with 8.74m back in 2009. However, any debate about who might be able to one day reach that fabled standard has been replaced by another question: “What will the very future of the event look like?”.

Last month, for the first time, World Athletics trialled their well-publicised long jump proposals, with attempts measured with the aid of cameras from where the front foot leaves the ground in a 40cm “take-off” zone, rather than the traditional 20cm board.

The development was part of the competition programme at the ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf and Berlin meetings and, if successful, could be rolled out in elite competition from 2026 onwards.

When the idea was first mooted, it was met with almost widespread condemnation from the jumping community – many of whom believe the skill involved in the event is being greatly reduced. Some even refused to compete at the German events in protest.

Malaika Mihambo, winner in Dusseldorf, was positive about the changes after her first experience of them. “I’m open to trying this out to determine whether it’s meaningful, exciting and beneficial,” she said. “This could make long jumping more exciting.”

But Lewis, who secured four Olympic long jump golds and still holds the world indoor record of 8.79m, believes there is a real risk that World Athletics will try to remove the marks of his generation.

“Being honest, I think these changes are happening because World Athletics are trying to erase Mike Powell’s world record,” he says, speaking to AW on a video call from Houston, where he is head coach of track and field at the university.

“It feels like they want to forget that era because we were so much more dominant. I think World Athletics have just decided jumpers are not going to jump far anymore.

“I think they’ve decided to start over. This is the beginning step and in a decade the long jump could end up like the javelin, where old records don’t count. Do you think they’ll compare the jumps on a take-off zone to those with the old marks under the previous board? It will be a new event.”

It’s true that neither the men’s or women’s world records are coming under threat. The women’s mark of 7.52m was set in 1988 by Galina Chistyakova and no athlete competing today has got within 20cm of that mark. In fact, the 12 biggest distances by women in the event were all recorded in the 20th century.

World Athletics argue that one of the main reasons for trialling the take-off zone idea is because they want to reduce fouling and speed up the competition, citing that a third of the attempts at the 2023 World Athletics Championships were fouls and that audience attention – in the stadium and on TV – noticeably dipped for the long jump. Some athletes have argued that those fouls in Budapest came about due to a change in the board but Lewis believes the fundamental issue with the event isn’t the structure, rather the current standards.

“[Fouling is] a false argument,” he says. “If you look at the consistency of major events over the last 50 years, fouling hasn’t changed much.

“You have to stop and think: ‘Why would they do this?’ In my opinion it’s not because of the fouling but because of the distances. Don’t change the rules to make it easier. We’re saying it’s better for the fans if it’s simpler but ultimately we’ll ignore and forget what athletes did in the past.

“You can still win a men’s long jump competition by jumping 8.30m or 8.40m at major competitions now. Mike Powell lost the Olympics at 8.64m. I also jumped 8.50m at 35 years old. The problem is that we’re not focused on the excellence of the long jump.

“People want to see athletes do something special and, right now, athletes aren’t getting near world records in the long jump. This is me saying it as a fan. Our top people winning is wonderful but are the fans seeing anything to get them off their feet?”

After competing in Dusseldorf, Mihambo added that: “I was pleasantly surprised to find that the difference [with a take-off zone] wasn’t as significant as I had expected” and that “this experience reinforced my understanding that long jump is about much more than just hitting the board”.

World Athletics added that “tests provided clear indications of athletes adjusting run-up strategy”, with “athletes adopting a high-risk strategy, knowing the risk of fouling is lower”. Lewis, however, believes that human nature will dictate the jumpers still live on the edge.

“In order to not foul, people are going to move back into the middle of the board, but they’re still going to reach to get to the end of the board because that’s what people do,” he says. “That’s something that’s innate in them. If you have to jump over a puddle, you’re not going to walk two feet back, you’ll just go to the edge and jump.

“And it’s going to take more time to measure. Do we really totally understand that every single event venue is going to measure exactly from this spot to that spot? How can we be consistent? I’d say 99 per cent of the facilities in the world will never be able to do it. So it just really doesn’t make any sense.”

So would Lewis, who still holds five out of the eight biggest distances in the long jump, have altered his approach for a take-off zone?

“It wouldn’t have changed anything that I did and I bet it would’ve been the same for Mike Powell,” he says. “Understanding the science of the event means you can’t adapt your mindset to jump from the middle of the board. I had the ability to do it as two of my winning jumps in Olympic finals were nowhere near the board and I just became oblivious to where it was. That was the way I was trained. But the vast majority of people couldn’t do that.

“The bigger issue is how people approach the board now. If you compare how we ran back then to what you see now, there’s a contrast. It drives me crazy. Jumpers on the runway now look like gymnasts. Just run, just sprint. There are so many things that are not being discussed in terms of why people aren’t jumping far.”

Lewis admires and respects athletes – including European outdoor and indoor long jump silver medallist Larissa Iapichino – who boycotted the Dusseldorf meeting. The nine-time Olympic and eight-time world champion also feels for athletes of this generation because of the lack of competition opportunities outside of the Diamond League and Continental Tour.

With field events not featuring in new ventures such as Grand Slam Track and last year’s inaugural Athlos NYC meeting, Lewis believes that the jumps and throws will end up moving away from stadia and arenas in future.

“The best thing about the long jump is that it’s easy to understand,” he says. “If you can get people close up around the sand, then you can get a good visualisation of the distances involved.

“Imagine a street meet with pole vault, long jump and shot put together? I’d put everyone as close together as possible. Even in the stands, you can’t fathom how high six metres is.

“For example, if fans are right around the runway and pit of the pole vault, looking at that bar going: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, that is so high’, then they appreciate the difficulty involved.

“In the shot put, I’d give every ticket-holder a chance to hold it before the event and, trust me, they’d go: ‘Good god, this thing is heavy and you’re throwing it that far?’. These are the kinds of things that we can do.”

Last June, Lewis joined Michael Johnson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for the launch of Grand Slam Track in Los Angeles and he believes it is a necessary development for the sport.

There has been criticism about the exclusion of the field events, but Lewis instead argues that it’s up to those events to go their own way.

“We have to realise that track and field is currently not professional,” Lewis says. “Grand Slam Track is a great idea. Running is doing its thing and I’m 100 per cent behind Michael Johnson.

“When I hear jumpers saying it’s unfair, I’m thinking: ‘No, do your own thing!’ Michael didn’t do the long jump so he is going to do his events and what he’s done so far has been fabulous. Come up with innovative ideas where people want to watch your event.

“I think we have to get out of this mindset that we’re owed anything. Sports are not owed, they’re earned. If you want people to spend their money and bring their family to come and watch, what are they getting out of it? I think that’s what Michael understands. We have to have unique ideas to present this thing.”

Lewis’ view on the global governance and structure of the sport is stark. He makes two points, the first of which focuses on the marketing of track and field and how it needs to be a made for TV product that also crosses over to entertainment. One example of this is Grand Slam Track’s Miami meeting on May 2-4 being staged on the same weekend as the Formula One Grand Prix.

“It makes so much sense,” says Lewis. “What will happen is that international Olympians will want to go on the grid walk for example and cross-market. You know, when I competed, I went to the Grammys and was asking people about how to market my sport, in regards to look, uniform and style. I thought we were doing something wrong, then.”

On TV coverage, he adds: “We pride ourselves in track and field of being this three-ring circus but when someone is in the blocks, a pole-vaulter jumps, everyone cheers and then the track athletes get told to stand up. That’s not a television show. When someone is in the blocks, on the runway or about to throw, everyone should stop.

“Athletes may need to be held up but if there’s a commercial then they need to wait. That’s what happens in other sports. The beauty of athletics is that we take in all shapes and sizes from every corner of the globe. It’s rare to have that and we need to showcase the athletes better.”

Lewis also points to the structure in NFL and how they’ve monetised the league, pointing to the fact that it raised over $12bn from broadcasters for the 2024/25 season. In comparison, World Athletics’ television and sponsorship rights income was $46.3m in 2023.

So what does he believe is the biggest issue regarding the governance at World Athletics?

“The power of the federations,” he says. “The vast majority don’t have a for-profit mindset. They would rather have credentials for the Olympics instead of athletes making millions of dollars. We don’t incentivise our federations to be successful.

“I think the one vote for one federation needs to be scrapped. When we elect the World Athletics Council, everyone votes. But what if a nation like Fiji, let’s say, wins a gold medal and they invest one million dollars into track and field off the back of it. Should they be rewarded with more votes?

“So, if you want more votes to elect people in prominent positions at World Athletics, you have to invest in your athletes. You’re earning the right to have more power. Smaller countries could build youth centres off the back of success and, if they did, then they should be praised for it.”

Lewis ultimately believes that the focus of innovation should not be centred on events like the long jump but instead on the way that the sport is actually governed.

“I just don’t think people want that kind of transformation within World Athletics,” he adds. “I feel that there are too many barriers within the governing body to make it happen.”

In the more immediate terms, close eyes will be kept on how the various changes and new events projects impact athletics. For it to truly thrive in the years ahead, though, Lewis believes the different disciplines will be better off heading in different directions.

“The sport can ultimately only evolve if events are fundamentally broken up,” he adds. “They can all come together for an Olympics, Worlds and other major/national championships but every event now needs to professionalise, find their own space and go their own way.”

This feature first appeared in the March issue of AW magazine.