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Lot Essay
ROBERT BEAMON (B. 1946)
Robert Beamon’s meteoric rise to greatness as a phenom of USA Track & Field was born out of humble beginnings and a challenging upbringing which would undoubtedly inform his illustrious career. Beamon was born in 1946 in South Jamaica, Queens, New York. His mother passed when he was 11 months old and he never knew his father - he was raised by his maternal grandmother and attended Jamaica High School, the halls of which he described as “a jungle […] you had to be constantly alert -- ready to fight or run” (L. Schwartz, Beamon made sport's greatest leap, ESPN). Beamon initially found refuge in basketball, noting “if you stayed decent, you stood a good chance of being clobbered every day. So I went hot and heavy for basketball -- and I feel it saved me from being cut up. Basketball is big stuff in New York” (ibid). However, it was through the local community center, who was very involved with the NYPD athletically, that he took up running. During a local meet, a long jumper became ill and Beamon decided to borrow a friend's spikes and jump in his place, resulting in a first jump of 19 feet, 8 inches. Beamon was then discovered by legendary track coach Larry Ellis and subsequently became a member of the All-American Track & Field team, setting a national high school record for the triple jump in 1965. Beamon began his adult competitive career at North Carolina A&T State University, before transferring to University of Texas at El Paso on an athletics scholarship. Just before the 1968 Summer Olympics, Beamon won the AAU indoor title for long jump, as well as the silver medal at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, also for long jump, helping to cement his place as favorite to win the event in Mexico City.
THE 1968 MEXICO CITY SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
Few records are obliterated in a manner as dramatic as demonstrated by Beamon on 18 October 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. On that fateful day, Beamon not only shattered the World Record for the men's long jump, but also set an unsurpassable Olympic Record. Fifty-six years later, Beamon's Olympic Record for a jump of 8.9 meters or 29 feet, 2 ¼ inches, stands unbroken. His legendary leap inspired the term ‘Beamonesque’, a superlative which entered the English vernacular to describe an staggering, extraordinary and unparalleled achievement.
"I could hear my heartbeat. And it was beating and so as I took off down the runway all I could hear was my heartbeat. I couldn't even hear my feet pounding up against the rubberized track. And as I lifted off the board, I knew something was special…”
-Bob Beamon, 2021.
The 19th Summer Olympics were hosted in Mexico City, 12 to 27 October 1968. Following the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, the 1968 Olympics were the first games to be hosted in Latin America, as well as the first games held in a Spanish-speaking country. The athletic events took place at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario, the first Olympic venue to use an all-weather track.
The men’s long jump competition included 35 athletes from 22 nations, with Beamon already the favorite to win the gold; he had won all but one of the meets he had competed in that year. His recording-breaking jump surpassed the distance covered by the measuring boards at the side of the pit, requiring officials to use a tape measure to confirm the precise length. Beamon and the anxious stadium were forced to endure several excruciating minutes for the distance to be announced. Reaching an astonishing 29 feet and 2 ¼ inches, Beamon shattered the previous world record by almost two feet (55 cm). No athlete in history had ever jumped 29 feet, let alone 28 feet. His feat, famously captured by Olympic photographer Ed Lacey, lives in perpetuity. His competitors were quick to remark on Beamon’s astonishing leap, with Soviet jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan quipping "Compared to this jump, we are as children." (ibid). Overcome with emotion, Beamon dropped to the ground and would later ascend the medal stand as recipient of the present lot.
THE DESIGN OF THE MEDAL
The imagery for the Summer Olympic medals was originally created by the Italian artist Giuseppe Cassioli (1865-1942), and was selected following a 1921 competition hosted by the International Olympic Committee. Cassioli’s design was first implemented for the medals of the 1928 Amsterdam games, and was used through the 2000 games in Sydney, with some minor changes made to reflect the host country. The present medal includes the inscription XIX OLIMIADA MEXICO 1968 to the right of Victory, updated by artists Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Eduardo Terrazas, and Lance Wyman, who drew from 1960’s op-art and traditional patterns of the Indigenous Huichol peoples of Mexico. The square tag connecting the medal with the ribbon includes is unique to the 1968 medals. Inscribed on the reverse Salto de longitud varonil, translating to "men’s long jump," the tag depicts a stylized running shoe, also designed by Wyman and his team.
Robert Beamon’s meteoric rise to greatness as a phenom of USA Track & Field was born out of humble beginnings and a challenging upbringing which would undoubtedly inform his illustrious career. Beamon was born in 1946 in South Jamaica, Queens, New York. His mother passed when he was 11 months old and he never knew his father - he was raised by his maternal grandmother and attended Jamaica High School, the halls of which he described as “a jungle […] you had to be constantly alert -- ready to fight or run” (L. Schwartz, Beamon made sport's greatest leap, ESPN). Beamon initially found refuge in basketball, noting “if you stayed decent, you stood a good chance of being clobbered every day. So I went hot and heavy for basketball -- and I feel it saved me from being cut up. Basketball is big stuff in New York” (ibid). However, it was through the local community center, who was very involved with the NYPD athletically, that he took up running. During a local meet, a long jumper became ill and Beamon decided to borrow a friend's spikes and jump in his place, resulting in a first jump of 19 feet, 8 inches. Beamon was then discovered by legendary track coach Larry Ellis and subsequently became a member of the All-American Track & Field team, setting a national high school record for the triple jump in 1965. Beamon began his adult competitive career at North Carolina A&T State University, before transferring to University of Texas at El Paso on an athletics scholarship. Just before the 1968 Summer Olympics, Beamon won the AAU indoor title for long jump, as well as the silver medal at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, also for long jump, helping to cement his place as favorite to win the event in Mexico City.
THE 1968 MEXICO CITY SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
Few records are obliterated in a manner as dramatic as demonstrated by Beamon on 18 October 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. On that fateful day, Beamon not only shattered the World Record for the men's long jump, but also set an unsurpassable Olympic Record. Fifty-six years later, Beamon's Olympic Record for a jump of 8.9 meters or 29 feet, 2 ¼ inches, stands unbroken. His legendary leap inspired the term ‘Beamonesque’, a superlative which entered the English vernacular to describe an staggering, extraordinary and unparalleled achievement.
"I could hear my heartbeat. And it was beating and so as I took off down the runway all I could hear was my heartbeat. I couldn't even hear my feet pounding up against the rubberized track. And as I lifted off the board, I knew something was special…”
-Bob Beamon, 2021.
The 19th Summer Olympics were hosted in Mexico City, 12 to 27 October 1968. Following the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, the 1968 Olympics were the first games to be hosted in Latin America, as well as the first games held in a Spanish-speaking country. The athletic events took place at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario, the first Olympic venue to use an all-weather track.
The men’s long jump competition included 35 athletes from 22 nations, with Beamon already the favorite to win the gold; he had won all but one of the meets he had competed in that year. His recording-breaking jump surpassed the distance covered by the measuring boards at the side of the pit, requiring officials to use a tape measure to confirm the precise length. Beamon and the anxious stadium were forced to endure several excruciating minutes for the distance to be announced. Reaching an astonishing 29 feet and 2 ¼ inches, Beamon shattered the previous world record by almost two feet (55 cm). No athlete in history had ever jumped 29 feet, let alone 28 feet. His feat, famously captured by Olympic photographer Ed Lacey, lives in perpetuity. His competitors were quick to remark on Beamon’s astonishing leap, with Soviet jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan quipping "Compared to this jump, we are as children." (ibid). Overcome with emotion, Beamon dropped to the ground and would later ascend the medal stand as recipient of the present lot.
THE DESIGN OF THE MEDAL
The imagery for the Summer Olympic medals was originally created by the Italian artist Giuseppe Cassioli (1865-1942), and was selected following a 1921 competition hosted by the International Olympic Committee. Cassioli’s design was first implemented for the medals of the 1928 Amsterdam games, and was used through the 2000 games in Sydney, with some minor changes made to reflect the host country. The present medal includes the inscription XIX OLIMIADA MEXICO 1968 to the right of Victory, updated by artists Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Eduardo Terrazas, and Lance Wyman, who drew from 1960’s op-art and traditional patterns of the Indigenous Huichol peoples of Mexico. The square tag connecting the medal with the ribbon includes is unique to the 1968 medals. Inscribed on the reverse Salto de longitud varonil, translating to "men’s long jump," the tag depicts a stylized running shoe, also designed by Wyman and his team.