Athlete Mike Powell: biography, achievements and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Michael Powell is an American track and field athlete, record holder and two-time world champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist in the long jump.

Overcome the impossible

After several years in the shadow of superstar rival Carl Lewis, Mike Powell's turning point came in 1991, when he broke the oldest track and field record. His jump of 8 m 95 cm at the World Championships in Tokyo by 5 cm surpassed the achievement at the 1968 Olympics by Bob Beamon, which was declared insurmountable. The new record ended the dominance of Lewis, who won 65 straight competitions over the course of 10 years, 15 of which included Powell.

Mike, scarcely lacking in self-confidence, had claimed for years prior to this winning jump that he could surpass Beamon's legendary achievement. Although he was ranked among the best athletes in the world long before this event, his impressive achievement, combined with Lewis's gradual departure from the scene, gave his career a new impetus. Powell became number one and showed amazing consistency over the next few years. Unlike Lewis, who even during his peak was very selective in his speeches, hemaintained a schedule that testified to the endurance and skill of an ambitious athlete.

Powell Mike: biography

Michael Anthony was born on 11/10/63 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Preston Powell, was a teacher and his mother, Caroline, was an accountant.

The makings of a future champion appeared in childhood, when he often shocked his neighbors by jumping over cars. An important influence on his motivation was his maternal grandmother, Mary Lee Iddy, with whom he lived for some time in West Philadelphia. She took Mike to the local Baptist church every Sunday and taught him the importance of hard work as the key to success in life.

After their divorce, his mother Caroline moved the family to West Covin, California in 1974. In high school, Mike Powell, who was 1m 85cm tall, loved to play basketball, and he often took shots over much taller players. He also displayed exceptional prowess in the long jump, high jump and triple jump. However, despite being the best state and high school track and field athlete in the country, major universities ignored him, in part because basketball agents were unsure whether he could dribble well enough in top-tier college competition.. Powell received a scholarship to the University of California, Irvine, but found himself unable to play on the basketball team because the season overlapped with the track and field team's schedule.

Talented andfickle

The former 2m high jumper changed his specialization when he achieved a world-class score by jumping 8m during his first competition at the beginning of his university studies. The talent of the young athlete allowed his coach Blair Clausen to notice that Mike Powell could break the world record in long jump. Although the track and field athlete's performances showed flashes of brilliance for several years, he remained erratic and became known as Mike Fall for his tendency to step over the take-off board during his approach. Throughout this period, he often made only one or two successful jumps out of every six. As a result, in the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games in 1984, he performed worse than his abilities and did not enter the US team.

Incentive to win

In 1985, determined to realize his full potential, Mike Powell took a sabbatical to compete internationally. He soon discovered that when it came to the long jump, promoters were only interested in the legendary Carl Lewis. "I've been told all my life that I can't do things," Powell told Sports Illustrated. “They said Carl could break the record and I took it as a personal insult. I was told straight to my face that I couldn't do it without knowing anything about me. And that pissed me off.”

Powell had a reason to beat Lewis, and in the same year he entered the top ten athletes in the world. The following year, he transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles. Angeles, which had one of the best athletics teams in the country. After graduating from school, he supported himself with odd jobs, which allowed him to participate in competitions and train intensively.

Refined technique

A key step in Powell's success was his decision to enlist the services of Randy Huntington, who at the time was one of the most in-demand coaches in the country. Together they drew up a five-year plan aimed at reaching the peak of the athlete's form for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Particular attention was paid to consistent performance and acceleration during the takeoff run. Powell proved to be a good student, climbing to number six in the world in 1987. In the same year, he won the World Universiade and crossed the 27-foot mark for the first time in his career.

Fate seemed to play a trick on Powell in 1988 when he had to have his appendix removed six weeks before the start of the U. S. team qualifiers for the Seoul Olympics. But he quickly recovered and qualified in the final jump along with Carl Lewis and Larry Myrix. Despite the fact that Powell set a personal best in Seoul, this was only enough for a silver medal due to Lewis' winning performance. But the result raised his ratings and performance fees, allowing him to focus on one discipline.

After the 1988 Olympics, Powell took another major step in his development by adopting the spin-like leg movement in the air from Lewis and Myrixpedals. This is evidenced by his jump of 855 cm at a competition in San Jose, California, in the spring of 1989. The achievement made Mike the seventh athlete in track and field history to break the 28-foot barrier. At the next event in Houston, Powell landed a jump spade that would break the world record. He lost twice to Lewis in 1990, despite breaking a personal best of 866 cm in one of the competitions. Nevertheless, Powell's victories in the absence of his main rival brought him to first place. Some argued that Mike did not deserve such an honor, as he had not yet defeated Lewis.

The path to victory

Continuing his forward drive to rein in his highly excitable competitive nervous system, Powell incorporated mental preparation into his busy training schedule. He enlisted the services of a sports psychologist who helped him channel his emotions so that they helped his physical efforts rather than hindering them. By this time, he had developed a habit of calling on the support of the audience by clapping just before his approach and inviting the fans to join in. Rhythmic applause beat time as Powell accelerated. Athlete Mike was different from other jumpers who preferred silence and background noise.

He capitalized on Lewis' absence in 1991 by winning 12 events leading up to the New York Nationals. The intrigue reached its climax when the rivals finally met face to face. Their duel became one of the most intense events in the history of athletics. Afterafter Powell overcame a seemingly unattainable 873 cm, his opponent in the last attempt jumped a centimeter further. Competing in the high Sestriere in Italy that same year, Mike landed two uncredited 29-foot (884 cm) jumps and one 873-centimeter jump in strong wind.

Mike Powell record 1991

Another duel with Carl Lewis took place at the 1991 World Championship in Tokyo in August. Powell was more than ever ready to fight, seeking revenge. Carl's confidence was fueled by breaking his world record in the 100m five days before the start of the competition in Tokyo. By this time, he had cleared the 28-foot mark 56 times, while Powell had only done so a handful of times. Mike was so worried that, due to hyperventilation, his first jump was only 785 cm. After the first round, he was in eighth place, while Lewis jumped 868 cm, the 15th best result in this discipline.

What followed was Carl Lewis' most amazing second place in the history of athletics. He made a series of 5 jumps, clearing 8.5 m, including 3 three attempts in which he jumped beyond 8.8 m. But all this was in vain, as Powell flew 895 cm in a crosswind, which ensured his victory and world record. In a historic attempt, Mike rose above the ground to a height of more than two meters. Lewis was not lenient and resented that his result only gave him second place. According to The New York Times, he told reporters that it was the biggesta leap in Powell's life that he will never be able to repeat.

Success

Mike Powell spent a lot of time on the interviews and advertisements he received after winning, and this affected his training schedule. Despite the fact that his fee increased from 10 to 50 thousand dollars per performance, in the next four competitions he did not manage to overcome even 27 feet (823 cm). As a result of signing lucrative contracts with Nike, Foot Locker and RayBan in 1992, his income rose to seven figures. He also received the prestigious 1991 James Sullivan Performance Award, an award given to the most outstanding amateur athletes.

Some critics agreed with Lewis that the jump could have been an accident until Mike Powell jumped 873 and 890 cm in May 1992 in Modesto, California. After injuring his back and hamstring muscles, the track and field athlete was forced to suspend training for a month and was able to continue them only five days before the start of the 1992 qualifying competitions for the US Olympic team. However, he defeated Lewis by jumping 863 cm. Karl, however, bounced back in Barcelona, leaving Powell with a second silver medal in two consecutive Olympics, jumping 3 cm further.

Winning the World Championship

After the 1992 Olympics, when Lewis stopped competing in the long jump, Mike Powell began to dominate the discipline. In 1993 he came outwon 25 competitions and jumped more than 27 feet (823 cm) 23 times. Lewis, for example, even in the best season of his career won only 10 times. Mike easily won the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany in 1993 with a score of 859 cm. length.

Michael Powell has become part of the athletics pantheon. Few athletes showed such enthusiasm in their performances, and none of them were so confident in their ability to win. As Mike told The New York Times, when someone tells him he can't do something, he's sure to do it soon. The amazing career of Carl Lewis was the goal that Powell was striving for. Mike reached for the impossible and achieved it.

Sports achievements

Main stages of a sports career:

• was one of the best in long jump, high jump and triple jump while attending Edgewood High School in California;
• placed sixth in the 1984 Olympic Qualifiers;
• ranked among the world's top 10 long jump athletes in 1985;
• won the Universiade, breaking the 27-foot mark for the first time in his career and finishing sixth in the world in the long jump in 1987;
• participated in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics;
• was the sevenththe man in history to break 28 feet (8.53 m) in 1989;
• best long jump in the world in 1990;
• set a world record at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics

Awards:

• Ducky Drake Most Valuable Athlete Award, Los Angeles, 1986;
• silver medal in long jump at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics;
• Sullivan Award for Best US Amateur Athlete, 1991;
• 1991 Jesse Owens International Prize;
• gold medal in the long jump at the 1991 and 1993 World Championships in Athletics.