COLORADO SPRINGS — As Bob Beamon paced off the length of his legendary leap at the Mexico City Olympics in the long jump pit at Sierra High School — heel to toe, heel to toe — the school’s track team responded with awestruck gasps.
Beamon’s leap of 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches in October 1968 was nearly 2 feet farther than the existing world record.
“That is ridiculous,” said junior Kayla Jackson, a 400-meter runner. “And he was 6 feet in the air! That is genius.”
Beamon was in town Thursday at the Olympic Training Center for a 40th anniversary celebration of his feat as part of Black History Month. First, he went to Sierra to offer the sort of inspiration he received from Olympians Ralph Boston, Wilma Rudolph and Donna de Varona when he attended Jamaica High School in Queens, New York.
“I had one foot in the grave and one foot out,” Beamon told the athletes. “I was living two kinds of lives. I was out there in the street, I was trying to chill out, be cool. I had to come out of it and commit myself to something. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
After attending too many funerals of people he knew from the street, Beamon committed himself to athletics. He told the team that the lessons they learn on the track — motivation, dedication, commitment, teamwork, staying focused — would help them throughout their lives. He urged them to learn to see through “the cracked glass” to find themselves.
“If you look at a cracked glass, you say, ‘I can’t see through it,’ ” Beamon said. “But if you really put it up to your face and look through it, you can see. You have to take time to get your life in focus.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
