Special Sub-Topic: World Records from 1950 Click Here To Play: World Records from 1950

At the World Athletic Championships in Tokyo 1991, Mike Powell (USA) set a new world record with a jump of 8.95 meters. In 1950, this record was held by Jesse Owens (USA). How far did Jesse Owens jump?

8.13 meters. Jesse Owen's 8.13 meter leap in 1935 was a mighty effort that would stand until 1960, and even then it would only be bested by 8 centimeters. One of the most amazing moments in sport happened in 1968 when Bob Beamon (USA) smashed the record at the time of 8.35 meters with a jaw dropping leap of 8.90 meters. The comment I will always remember is from one of his fellow competitors who said, "This guy just went into orbit. How are we supposed to compete with that?"

In Spain in 1993, Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) cleared a high jump of 2.45 meters. The record in 1950 was held by Lester Steers (USA) who had jumped over the bar at what height?

2.11 meters. Progressing just 34 centimeters in 43 years might not seem very much, but it is very hard to get yourself even a little bit higher off the ground. A lot of the increase in the record for this event is due to the change in technique brought about by Dick Fosbury, with the introduction of the "Fosbury Flop".

In the 10,000 meters in 2006, Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) ran this distance in Zurich to set a new world record of 26 minutes 17 seconds. In 1950, the great Checkoslavakian athlete, Emil Zatopek, was the world record holder. What was his time for the event?

29 minutes 20 seconds. With the times for each lap of the track taking not much more than 1 minute, it is incredible to think that Zatopek, while running a world record for his era, would have been lapped twice by Bekele, and wouldn't have been far away from being lapped for a 3rd time.

At the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Ukrainian Inessa Kravets set a world record of 15.50 meters. How far had Rie Yamaguchi of Japan hopped, skipped, and jumped to be the 1950 record holder?

11.66 meters. This is another event where improved technique has been of assistance as well as physical advances. In 45 years, the record had increased by almost a third, a much greater percentage than in the long jump, for example. Yamaguchi's record is very unusual, being set by a Japanese athlete during World War II. It would be a while before Japan entered the war, but when Yamaguchi set her world record on September 21st 1939, the war had already started in Europe three weeks earlier.

In June 1987, the Soviet shot putter Natalia Lisovskaya set a new world record of 22.63 meters. Another Russian, Klavdia Tochonova, held the record halfway through the 20th century. How far did she put the shot?

14.86 meters. As well as Lisovskaya's throw in 1987, there were several other Eastern Bloc competitors throwing well over 21 meters during the 1980s. Over 2 decades later, Valerie Vili of New Zealand won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a throw of 20.56 meters, only 90% of the way to the world record.

The Men's 100 meter freestyle is the glamour event, and in 2008 Eamon Sullivan of Australia set a new World and Olympic record of 47.05 seconds at the Beijing Olympics. Alan Ford (USA) was the record holder in 1950. How fast did he swim 2 lengths of the pool?

55.4 seconds. It seems like records tumble at every meet in swimming, but even with all the streamlining and improved techniques, there is only an eight-second improvement between 1950 and 2008. However, if you go back a whole century to the 1908 Olympics in London, an American, Charles Daniels, won the gold medal in what was then a world record of 1 minute 5.6 seconds.

One swimming record set at the 2008 Olympics was the Women's 800 meter freestyle. Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain set a mark of 8 minutes 14 seconds. In 1950, the record was held by Ragnhild Hveger of Denmark. How long did the Danish swimmer take to complete 800 meters?

10 minutes 52 seconds. It could have been a close finish to the wall between these two swimmers. I don't have the split times for the Hveger's world record effort, but she would have been coming up to the finish line to complete 600 meters at almost exactly the same time as Rebecca Adlington was charging up the pool to complete 800 meters.

At Stuttgart, Germany, in 1986 the Russian Yuriy Sedykh launched the hammer 86.74 meters. Imre Nemeth of Hungary had held the record 36 years earlier. How far did he throw the hammer?

59.57 meters. In the 10-year period from Jan 1st 1993 to Dec 31st 2002, the best throw in the world was 83.68 meters, not even within 3 meters of the 1986 record. In the case of the hammer throw, speed, technique, and timing are just as important as brute strength.

In July 1994, the Ukrainian Sergey Bubka pole vaulted 6.14 meters in Sestriere, Italy. The highest clearance before 1950 was by the American Cornelius Warmerdam. How high was that?

4.77 meters. Pole vaulting, more than any other athletic event has benefitted from improved technology and technique, as well as the improvements in nutrition and training methods that help every event. However, in this case it is also at least partly due to the emergence of one phenomenal athlete. It was joked that he had to inform Air Traffic Control about when and where he was competing. Interestingly, Warmerdam made his recording setting vault in 1942, to make it onto a very short list of athletes to break a world record while their country was actually at war.

In the Men's marathon, Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia ran the 2008 Berlin marathon in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 59 seconds. In 1950, the South Korean Suh Yun-Bok's time from the 1947 Boston marathon was still the one to beat. What was his time?

2 hours 25 minutes 39 seconds. As Gebreselassie crossed the finishing line, Suh Yun-Bok on the way to his own world record, would still have had about 6.25 kilometers left to run!