Track and field athlete Mike Powell: biography, achievements and interesting facts

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

Overcome the impossible

After several years of being in the shadow of superstar contender Carl Lewis, the turning point for Mike Powell was in 1991, in which he beat the oldest record of athletics. His 8 m 95 cm jump at the World Championships in Tokyo by 5 cm surpassed the achievement at the 1968 Olympic Games of Bob Beamon, which was declared insurmountable. The new record was completed by the dominance of Lewis, who over the course of 10 years won 65 times in such competitions, in 15 of which Powell participated.

Mike, hardly suffering from a lack of self-confidence, for many years before this victorious leap asserted that he could surpass the legendary achievement of Beamon. Although he was among the world's best athletes long before this event, his impressive achievement, coupled with Lewis's gradual departure from the stage, gave his career a new push. Powell became number one and showed amazing consistency in the next few years. Unlike Lewis, who even during the peak of his career was very selective in his speeches, he supported a schedule that indicated the endurance and skill of an ambitious athlete.

Powell Mike: Biography

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

The chances of the future champion were manifested in childhood, when he often shocked neighbors, jumping over cars. An important influence on his motivation was rendered by his maternal grandmother, Mary Lee Iddi, with whom he lived for some time in West Philadelphia. Every Sunday she took Mike to the local Baptist church and inspired him with the importance of hard work as a pledge of success in life.

After the divorce, his mother, Caroline, moved the family to West Cowin, California in 1974. In high school Mike Powell, whose height was 1 m 85 cm, liked to play basketball, and he often made throws through much higher players. He also demonstrated exceptional skills in long jump, height and triple jump. Nevertheless, even though he was the best athlete in the state and schools of the country, large universities did not pay attention to him, in part because basketball agents were not sure that he would be able to lead the ball well enough at top-level colleges competitions . Powell received a scholarship from the University of California at Irvine, but found that he can not play in the basketball team, because the season was overlapped by the schedule of the athletics team.

Talented and fickle

The former high jumper who crossed the two-meter barrier changed his specialization when he managed to achieve a world class result by jumping 8 m during the first competition at the beginning of the university. The talent of the young athlete allowed his coach Blair Clausen to notice that Mike Powell's world record in long jump can beat. Although the performances of the athlete for a few years showed flashes of brilliance, he remained chaotic and became known as Mike Fall for his propensity to make an excuse for the pushing board during his approach. Throughout this period, he often made only one or two scoring jumps out of every six. As a result, at the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games in 1984, he performed worse than his capabilities and did not join the US team.

The incentive to win

In 1985, having decided to realize his full potential, Mike Powell took an academic leave to participate in international competitions. He soon discovered that when it came to leaping, promoters were only interested in the legendary Carl Lewis. "All my life they told me that I can not do anything," Powell said in an article in Sports Illustrated. "They said that Karl can break the record, and I took it as a personal insult." They told me straight in the face that I can not do this without knowing anything about me. And it made me angry. "

Powell had a reason to outbid Lewis, and that year he entered the top ten athletes of the world. The following year, he moved to the University of California in Los Angeles, which was one of the country's best athletics teams. After graduation, he was interrupted by casual earnings, which allowed him to participate in competitions and train intensively.

Refined technology

A key step on the way to Powell's success was his decision to resort to the services of Randy Huntington, who at that time was one of the most sought after coaches in the country. Together they made a five-year plan aimed at achieving the peak of the athlete's form for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Particular attention was paid to the constant effectiveness and acceleration in the run-up. Powell was a good student, rising to the sixth place in the world in 1987. In the same year, he won the World Universiade and in the first in his career overcame a 27-foot line.

Fate seemed to play a trick on Powell in 1988, when he had to remove the appendix six weeks before the start of the qualifying competition for the US team to participate in the Olympics in Seoul. But he quickly recovered and qualified in the final jump with Karl Lewis and Larry Mairicks. Despite the fact that in Seoul Powell set a personal record, this was enough only for a silver medal because of Lewis's victorious performance. But the result raised his rating and fee for performances, which allowed him to concentrate on one discipline.

After the Olympics of 1988, Powell took another important step in his development, taking over from Lewis and Mairiks the movement of the feet in the air, similar to the rotation of the pedals. This is evidenced by his jump to 855 cm at the competitions in San Jose, California, in the spring of 1989. Achievement made Mike the seventh athlete in the history of athletics, breaking the 28-foot barrier. At the following competitions in Houston Powell made a jump in the jump that would break the world record. He lost twice to Lewis in 1990, despite the fact that in one of the competitions he broke a personal record of 866 cm. Nevertheless, Powell's victory in the absence of the main rival brought him to the first place. Some argued that Mike did not deserve such an honor, as he had not yet defeated Lewis.

Way to victory

Continuing his advance to curb his easily excitable nervous system during the competition, Powell included psychological training in a tight training schedule. He used the services of a sports psychologist who helped him direct his emotions in such a way that they would help his physical efforts, and not prevent them. By this time, he had developed the habit of provoking the support of spectators, slamming directly in front of his approach and inviting fans to join. Rhythmic applause beat off the beat when Powell accelerated. Mike-athlete was different from other jumpers, who preferred silence and were distracted by background noise.

He took advantage of the lack of Lewis in 1991, winning 12 competitions that preceded the national championship in New York. The intrigue reached its climax when the rivals finally met face to face. Their fight was one of the most intense events in the history of athletics. After Powell overcame the seemingly unattainable 873 cm, his rival in the last attempt jumped a centimeter further. Competing in the high mountain Sestriere in Italy in the same year, Mike made two uncommitted 29-foot (884 cm) jump and one 873-centimeter in a strong wind.

Mike Powell: the record of 1991

Another fight with Carl Lewis took place at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo in August. Powell was more than ever ready to fight, trying to achieve revenge. Carl's confidence fueled the world record he had beaten in a 100m race five days before the start of the Tokyo event. By this time, he had crossed the 28-foot mark (853 cm) 56 times, and Powell did it only a few times. Mike was so worried that because of hyperventilation his first jump he made only 785 cm. After the first round, he was in eighth place, while Lewis jumped to 868 cm, the 15th best result in this discipline.

What followed was for Carl Lewis the most amazing second place in the history of track and field athletics. He made a series of 5 jumps, overcoming 8.5 m, including 3 three attempts, in which he jumped further than 8.8 m. But all this was in vain, since Powell flew to 895 cm with a side wind, which provided him with a victory and world record. In a historic attempt, Mike rose above the ground to a height of more than two meters. Lewis was not indulgent and resented the fact that his result gave him only second place. According to The New York Times, he told reporters that this was the biggest leap in the life of Powell, and he would never be able to repeat it.

Success

Mike Powell spent a lot of time on interviews and ads, whose proposals fell on him after the victory, and this affected the schedule of his training. Despite the fact that his fee increased from 10 to 50 thousand dollars per performance, in the next four competitions he was not able to overcome even 27 feet (823 cm). As a result of signing lucrative contracts with Nike, Foot Locker and RayBan in 1992, his income grew to seven-digit numbers. He also received the prestigious James Sullivan Prize for the results of 1991, the award that is awarded to the most outstanding amateur athletes.

Some critics agreed with Lewis that the jump could be a coincidence, until in May 1992 in Modesto, California, Mike Powell jumped 873 and 890 cm. After he injured his back and hamstrings, the athlete was forced to suspend training for Month and was able to continue them only five days before the beginning of the qualifying competition in 1992 in the US Olympic team. Nevertheless, he defeated Lewis by jumping 863 cm. Karl, however, played in Barcelona, leaving Powell with the second silver medal at two Olympics in a row, jumping 3 cm further.

Victory at the World Championship

After the 1992 Olympics, when Lewis stopped participating in the long jump competitions, Mike Powell began to dominate the discipline. In 1993, he came out the winner in 25 competitions and 23 times jumped further than 27 feet (823 cm). Lewis, for example, even in the best season of his career won only 10 times. Mike easily won at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1993 with a result of 859 cm. He made the 4 best leaps and ahead of his nearest competitor by more than 30 cm. His performance was one of the most devastating in world class competitions in the history of jumping in Length.

Michael Powell became part of the pantheon of athletics. Only a few athletes showed such enthusiasm in their speeches, and none of them was so sure of their ability to win. As Mike told The New York Times, when someone tells him that he can not do something, he is confident that he will do it in the near future. The amazing career of Karl Lewis was the goal that Powell sought. Mike reached for the impossible and reached it.

Sports achivments

The main stages of sports career:

• Was one of the best in the long jump, height and triple jump while studying at Edgewood High School in California;
• He finished sixth in the qualifying competitions for the 1984 Olympic Games;
• Entered the top ten best athletes of the world in long jump in 1985;
• Won at the Universiade, for the first time in his career breaking the 27-foot mark (8.23 m) and became the sixth in the world in long jump in 1987;
• Took part in the Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992;
• Became the seventh person in the history, having overcome a mark of 28 feet (8,53 m) in 1989;
• Became the best in the long jump in the world in 1990;
• Established a world record at the World Athletics Championships in 1991.

Awards:

• Dakey Drake's reward to the most valuable athlete, Los Angeles, 1986;
• A silver medal in long jump at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics;
• The prize of Sullivan to the best American amateur athlete, 1991;
• The international prize of Jesse Owens, 1991;
• A gold medal in long jump at the World Athletics Championships in 1991 and 1993.