Long jump legend Ralph Boston dies

Olympic champion in Rome 1960 and multiple world record-breaker from the United States was 83 years old

Tributes have poured in for Ralph Boston, the 1960 Olympic long jump gold medallist and former world record-holder, who died on Sunday (April 30) aged 83 following a stroke.

Carl Lewis, four-time Olympic long jump champion, said: “I’m devastated about Ralph Boston’s passing. As a child I idolized him and he was a major influence in my life. I’ll miss his voice and support. He changed the game as an athlete, advocate and mentor. Jumpers, Know his name!!! Rest with the greats.”

USA Track & Field, meanwhile, said: “Our sport has lost a legend with the passing of Ralph Boston. The greatest long jumper of his time, Boston broke the world record six times and was a member of the inaugural National Track & Field Hall of Fame. His legacy and contributions will live on for generations to come.”

Jesse Owens held the long jump world record from 1935 to 1960 with 8.13m, but Boston was the man to break Owens’ brilliant mark with 8.21m. Competing at the Mt San Antonio College Stadium in Walnut, California, on August 12 in 1960, Boston leapt 8.07m in the third round before soaring out to 8.21m in the fifth.

The imperial measurements, which were popular at the time, saw the mark registered at 26ft 11 ¼in and Boston said: “I thought I’d gone over 26ft but I didn’t think it was that far!”

Just three weeks later in Rome, the 21-year-old Boston took to the runway and won Olympic gold with 8.12m – a distance that broke Owens’ long-standing Olympic record from the 1936 Berlin Games.

It was a close competition, though, as Boston’s American team-mate Bo Roberson fell just one centimetre short with his final jump while Armenian Igor Ter-Ovanesyan jumped a European record of 8.04m for bronze.

The last of 10 children and the son of a farmer and handyman, Boston grew up in Laurel, Mississippi, and as a teenager he borrowed his father’s tools to build a track on a nearby lot that included a high jump set made from bamboo and a sawdust landing pit.

Laurel, however, was a focal point of Ku Klux Klan violence and after his victory in Rome he returned to his home town but was only able to use segregated restaurants and restrooms. “I was a citizen of the world,” he said, “but not a citizen of Mississippi.”

Following his Olympic triumph Boston broke the world record a further five times. In 1961 he jumped 8.24m at the…