It was fifty years ago today- October 18, 1968 at the Mexico City Olympic Games- American long jumper Bob Beamon did the incredible- it wasn’t that he broke the world record in the long jump -that would have been impressive enough- but he smashed it breaking the record by more than half a metre and almost two feet.  29 feet 2.50 inches. This was the signature athletic achievement at the 1968 games. At the end of the 20th century Sports Illustrated would name it one of the 5ive greatest sports moments of the 20th century. The record held for 33 years and is still the Olympic record. How impressive was this-when it happened the optical device used to measure jumping distances was not designed to measure a jump of that length.