Michael Powell is an American track and field athlete, record holder and two-time world champion, two-time silver medalist in the Olympic Games in long jump.
Overcome the impossible
After several years in the shadow of rival superstar Carl Lewis, 1991 became a turning point for Mike Powell, in which he broke the oldest track and field record. His 8m 95 cm jump at the 5 cm World Championships in Tokyo surpassed Bob Beamon's achievement at the 1968 Olympics, which was declared insurmountable. The new record completed the dominance of Lewis, who for 10 years won 65 times in a row at such competitions, in 15 of which Powell participated.
Mike, hardly suffering from a lack of self-confidence, had claimed for years before this triumphant leap that he could beat Beamon's legendary achievement. Although he was one of the best athletes in the world long before this event, his impressive achievement, combined with the gradual departure of Lewis from the scene, gave his career a new impetus. Powell became number one and showed surprising constancy over the next few years. Unlike Lewis, who, even at the peak of his career, was very selective in his speeches, he maintained a schedule testifying to the stamina and skill of an ambitious athlete.
Powell Mike: biography
Michael Anthony was born on November 10, 63 in Philadelphia, PA. His father, Preston Powell, was a teacher, and his mother, Caroline, an accountant.
The makings of the 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. Every Sunday she took Mike to the local Baptist church and inspired him with the importance of hard work as a guarantee of success in life.
After the divorce, his mother Caroline moved the family to West Covin, California in 1974. At high school, Mike Powell, whose height was 1 m 85 cm, loved to play basketball, and he often made throws through much taller players. He also demonstrated exceptional skill in long, high and triple jumps. Nevertheless, despite the fact that he was the best athlete of the state and schools of the country, major universities did not pay attention to him, partly because basketball agents were not sure that he would be able to play the ball well enough at competitions of colleges of the highest level. Powell received a scholarship from the University of California, Irvine, but found that he could not play in the basketball team, because the season was overlapped by the team’s track and field team schedule.
Talented and fickle
The former high jumper, overcoming the two-meter hurdle, changed his focus when he managed to achieve a world-class result by jumping 8 meters during the first competitions at the beginning of his studies at the university. 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 chaotic and became known as Mike Fall for his tendency to step over the push board during his approach. Throughout this period, he often made only one or two successful 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 enter the US team.
Incentive to win
In 1985, deciding to realize his full potential, Mike Powell took academic leave to participate in international competitions. He soon discovered that when it came to the long jump, the promoters were only interested in the legendary Carl Lewis. "All my life they told me that I can’t do something, " Powell said in an article in Sports Illustrated. “They said Carl could break the record, and I took it as a personal insult.” They told me right in the face that I could not do this without knowing anything about me. And it pissed me off. ”
Powell had reason to surpass Lewis, and in the same year he entered the top ten athletes in the world. The following year, he moved to the University of California at Los Angeles, in which was one of the country's best athletics teams. After graduation, he interrupted casual earnings, which allowed him to participate in competitions and to train intensively.
Refined Technology
A key step on the path 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 trainers 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 continuous performance and acceleration during the take-off run. Powell was a good student, rising to sixth place in the world in 1987. In the same year he won the World Universiade and in the first in his career he overcame the 27-foot mark.
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 rounds for the US team to participate in the Olympics in Seoul. But he quickly recovered and in the final jump he qualified with Carl Lewis and Larry Myriks. Despite the fact that in Seoul, Powell set a personal record, this was only enough for a silver medal due to Lewis's winning performance. But the result raised his rating and pay for performances, which allowed him to focus on one discipline.
After the Olympic Games in 1988, Powell took another important step in his development, adopting from Lewis and Myriks a movement of his legs in the air, similar to pedaling. This is evidenced by his 855 cm jump at competitions in San Jose, California, in the spring of 1989. The achievement made Mike the seventh athlete in track and field history to overcome the 28-foot barrier. In the next competition in Houston, Powell made a jump jump that would break the world record. He twice lost to Lewis in 1990, despite the fact that in one of the competitions he broke a personal record of 866 cm. Nevertheless, Powell’s victories in the absence of his main rival brought him to the first place. Some claimed that Mike did not deserve such an honor, since he had not yet defeated Lewis.
Way to victory
Continuing to move forward to curb his nervous system, which was easily aroused during the competition, Powell included psychological training in his busy training schedule. He used the services of a sports psychologist who helped him direct his emotions in such a way that they helped his physical efforts, rather than hinder them. By this time, he had developed the habit of arousing the support of the audience, clapping right in front of his approach and inviting fans to join. Rhythmic applause beat the beat as Powell accelerated. Mike the athlete was different from other jumpers who preferred silence and were distracted by background noise.
He took advantage of Lewis' absence in 1991, winning 12 competitions that preceded the national championship in New York. Intrigue reached its climax when the rivals finally met face to face. Their fight became one of the most intense events in the history of athletics. After Powell overcame the seemingly unattainable 873 cm, his opponent in his last attempt jumped a centimeter further. Competing in the highland Sestriere in Italy that same year, Mike made two unaccounted 29-foot (884 cm) jumps and one 873-centimeter with strong winds.
Mike Powell: 1991 record
Another bout with Carl Lewis took place at the 1991 World Cup in Tokyo in August. Powell was more than ever ready for a fight, seeking revenge. Karl’s confidence fueled his world record in the 100m race five days before the start of the Tokyo competition. By this time, he 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, he made his first jump 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 for Carl Lewis the most amazing second place in the history of athletics. He made a series of 5 jumps, overcoming 8.5 m, including three three attempts, in which he jumped further than 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 historical attempt, Mike rose above the ground to a height of more than two meters. Lewis was not condescending and resented that his result gave him only second place. According to The New York Times, he told reporters that this was the biggest leap in Powell’s life, and he could never repeat it.
Success
Mike Powell spent a lot of time on interviews and advertisements, the proposals of which 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 revenue grew to seven-figure numbers. He also received the prestigious James Sullivan Prize for the results of 1991, an award awarded to the most outstanding amateur athletes.
Some critics agreed with Lewis that the jump could be an accident, until in May 1992 in Modesto, California, Mike Powell jumped at 873 and 890 cm. After he injured his back and hamstring muscles, the athlete was forced to suspend training on 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. Carl, however, recouped in Barcelona, leaving Powell with a second silver medal at two Olympics in a row, jumping 3 cm further.
World Cup Victory
After the 1992 Olympics, when Lewis stopped taking part in long jump competitions, Mike Powell began to dominate this discipline. In 1993, he emerged victorious in 25 competitions and jumped 23 times further than 27 feet (823 cm). Lewis, for example, won only 10 times in the best season of his career. Mike easily won the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1993 with a score of 859 cm. He made the 4 best jumps and was 30 cm ahead of his closest competitor. His performance was one of the most devastating 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 performances, and none of them was so confident in their ability to win. As Mike told The New York Times, when someone tells him that he cannot do something, he is sure that he will do it in the near future. Karl Lewis’s amazing career was the goal Powell sought. Mike reached for the impossible and reached it.
