What was the greatest track & Field feat ever accomplished?

Answer 1

Very difficult to break it down to one single event so, I'll give you my top 10 in order of peference:

10. Edwin Moses, who won gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the world record four times.

9. Javier Sotomayor, who is the only man to exceed 8 foot in the (8'-½ in,2.45 meters ) in the High Jump, when he set the world record on July 23, 1993 in Salamanca, Spain.

8. Carl Lewis, matching Jesse Owens mark of 4 gold medals in a single Olympiad, the '84 Los Angeles Games.

7. Carl Lewis, matching Al Oerter's feat of winning 4 gold medals for the same event in 4 consecutive Olympiads, when he won the long jump in the '96 Atlanta Games, matching his efforts in '84, '88 and '92.

6. Michael Johnson winning both the 200m and 400m races in a single Olympics, during the 1996 Atlanta Games. He easily captured the 400m Olympic title with a time of 43.49 beating Roger Black of Great Britain by almost one second. At the 200m final, Johnson achieved a peak speed of over 40 km/h (25 mph), and finished the race in 19.32 shattering the world record by a third of a second.

5. Al Oerter became the first track and field athlete to win consecutive gold medals for the same event over the period of FOUR Olympiads. Oerter, won the Discus thow at the '56, '60, '64 & '68 Olmpics.

4. Jim Thorpe's perfomance at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, Thorpe contested the long jump and high jump as well, but his first event scheduled was the pentathlon. Thorpe was the class of the field, winning four events. He placed only third in the javelin, an event he had never done before 1912.

The same day he won the pentathlon gold, Thorpe qualified for the high-jump final. In that final, he placed fourth, and took seventh place in the long jump. Thorpe's final event was the decathlon, where tough competition from local favorite Hugo Wieslander was expected. But Wieslander was no match for Thorpe either, finishing some 700 points behind. Thorpe placed in the top four of all ten events.

3. Jessie Owens. But not for winning the 4 Olympic Gold Medals in the 36' Games, but for an extraordinary day that took place a year earlier. In a span of 45 minutes on May 25, 1935 at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Owns tied the record for the 100 yard dash, set world records in the long jump, 220 yard dash, and 220 yard low hurdles. With the 220 times bettering the records for 200 meter equivalents, Owns set or tied SIX World record in less thane ONE hour.

2. On May 6, 1954 during a meet between British AAA and Oxford University, Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier; with a time of 3 min 59.4.

1. Bob Beamon's World record jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olymipic Games. Although Beamon was a favorite, his jump was completely unexpected. From 1935 to 1968, the long jump world record had increased only 8.25" from 26' 8'-1/2 to 27' 4-3/4. With a single jump, Beamon added nearly 22" to the record in a single day.

Answer 2

Roger Bannister's first sub 4 minute mile. Since the mile became standard, doctors had always said that the human body would never be able to run it in under 4 minutes. It turned out to be a tougher psychological barrier than physical.

The book "The Perfect Mile" is about Bannister and 2 other guys who were racing to be the first. A great read.

Answer 3

i think the greatest feat was when some guy got impaled by a javelin in the 1960-something olympics- it was a great throw- but it was a little off target- unless he was aiming there.

Answer 4

Roger banister breaking the 4 minute mile. a sub 4 minute mile may seem like nothin now but he was the first human ever to achieve it

Answer 5

The english guy who finally broke the 4 minute mile.

Answer 6

in 2000 the women's 4x4 relay team won gold, 4 a small country like the Bahamas

Answer 7

Justin Gatlin- The fastest man in the world! From my hometown!!

Answer 8

Steve Prefontaine. Period. End of Story.

Answer 9

jesse owens brave proud showing in Nazi Germany

Answer 10

Anyone who finishes the marathon.