How far did Ralph Boston jump?

Ralph Boston was an American track athlete who won three Olympic medals and became the first person to break the 27 feet (8.2 m) barrier in the long jump. He was born on May 9, 1939 and died Sunday, April 30 at the age of 83 following complications from a recent stroke.

Boston won the National Collegiate Athletic Association long jump title in 1960 while attending Tennessee State University.

In August of the same year, he broke Jesse Owens’ 25-year-old world record in the event at the Mt. SAC Relays. On May 27, 1961, he broke the world record by jumping 27′ 1/2″ at the Modesto Relays.

Boston qualified for the Summer Olympics in Rome, where he won gold in the long jump with an Olympic record of 8.12 m (26 ft 7+12 in) and a centimeter victory over American teammate Bo Roberson.

From 1961 to 1966, Boston won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national long jump championship six years in a row.

He also had the longest triple jump for an American in 1963. He returned to the Tokyo Olympics as the world record holder after losing it to Igor Ter-Ovanesyan and then regaining it a few months before the games, first in Kingston, Jamaica, and then improving it at the 1964 Olympic Trials.

Boston’s final record improvement to 8.35m came in 1965 at the Modesto Relays. Ter-Ovanesyan set the record at altitude in 1967. In 1967, he lost the national championship to Jerry Proctor.

After his track career ended, Boston worked as a television sports commentator, a University of Tennessee administrator, and a business executive in Georgia.

He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985.