Which is the longest held Olympic record?

With so many Olympics sports in the mix, it can actually be difficult to wade through sports trivia to the essential facts of who has held the longest olympic record for a man or woman. The ‘what, where and when’ of it all draws various interpretations, some with more basis to them than others.

Case in point, some believe athlete Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova, who in 1983 ran the women’s 800 metres in just 1:53.28 holds the olympic record. However, while her achievement at Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany deserve to be acknowledged it did not in fact take place, as stated in several places online, “at the 1983 Olympics”.

The actual 800 meter olympic record is the 1980 1:53.43 time set by Soviet middle-distance runner Nadezhda Olizarenko while winning gold in the women’s 800 metres at the 1980 Moscow held Olympics. Her time remains the second fastest ever for the event, behind only the aforementioned Kratochvilova time, by 15 hundredths of a second. Imagine the odds of knowing, or rather deducing, that a world record was about to be achieved and considering which betting broker to opt for (since they offer the best odds, bookies and arbitrage betting opportunities, even to those with a talent for picking winners) in such a scenario. It certainly provides food for thought when watching big sporting events.

The longest held Olympic record by anyone belongs to American Robert “Bob” Beaman, who, in October 18, 1968, won the men’s long jump at the Olympics in Mexico City with a distance of 8.90m. This topped the existing world record by an impressive 55cm. Testament to his record was the fact that it remained a world record until August 1991, when fellow American Mike Powell jumped 8.95m at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, during the World Athletics Championships. Beaman’s decades old jump, to this day, remains the second longest legal jump in history.