The men's long jump event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. The competition was held on July 31, 1948. Twenty-one athletes from 17 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American

Willie Steele William Samuel Steele (July 14, 1923 – September 19, 1989) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump. Steele won the gold medal in the long jump at the 1948 London Olympics. A two-time USA Outdoor champion, Stee ...

. It was the United States' fifth consecutive and tenth overall gold medal in the men's long jump. Theo Bruce won Australia's first long jump medal with his silver.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the jumpers from the pre-war 1936 Games returned.

was the favorite; he had won the 1946 and 1947 AAU championships as well as the 1948 U.S. Olympic trials (nearly breaking

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifet ...

's world record, fouling on his would-be record jump). However, Steele came into London with an injured ankle. Ceylon, Guyana, Iceland, South Korea, and Portugal each made their first appearance in the event. The United States appeared for the 11th time, the only nation to have long jumpers at each of the Games thus far.

Competition format

The 1948 competition used a two-round format that took aspects from both the pre-1936 formats and the unusual three-round 1936 tournament. The qualifying round gave each competitor three jumps to achieve a distance of 7.20 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. The final provided each jumper with six jumps, with the best to count (qualifying round jumps were not considered for the final).Official Report, p. 267.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ev ...

(

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time ** B ...

)

Results

Qualifying

Qual. rule: qualification standard 7.20m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Final

Results of individual jumps are not known other than for Steele. Steele's first jump was 7.825 metres and his second 7.680 metres; he did not take any further jumps. Steele's result was the best non-wind-assisted jump in Olympic history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1948 Summer Olympics - Men's Long Jump Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics Long jump at the Olympics Men's events at the 1948 Summer Olympics