1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Long Jump (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	Long jump
gender	Women
Attendees	48 athletes from 35 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 1, 1996 (qualifying) August 2, 1996 (final)
Medalists Chioma Ajunwa ( NGR )   Fiona May ( ITA )   Jackie Joyner-Kersee ( USA )

The women's long jump at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was held on August 1 and 2, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 48 athletes took part.

The Nigerian Chioma Ajunwa became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the Italian Fiona May and the American Jackie Joyner-Kersee .

The Austrian Ljudmila Ninova was eliminated in the preliminary round without a valid attempt.
Athletes from Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic Champion	Heike Drechsler ( Germany )	7.14 m	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	Fiona May ( Italy )	6.98 m	Gothenburg 1995
European champion in 1994	Heike Drechsler ( Germany )	7.14 m	Helsinki 1994
Pan American Champion 1995	Niurka Montalvo ( Cuba )	6.89 m	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champion 1995	Flora Hyacinth ( US Virgin Islands )	6.59 m	Guatemala City 1995
South America Champion	Andrea Ávila ( Argentina )	6.58 m	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Jelena Perschina ( Kazakhstan )	6.50 m	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Grace Umelo ( Nigeria )	6.13 m	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania champion 1994	Frith Maunder ( New Zealand )	6.10 m	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	7.52 m	Galina Tschistjakowa ( Soviet Union )	Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg ), Russia	June 11, 1988
Olympic record	7.40 m	Jackie Joyner-Kersee ( USA )	Final from Seoul , South Korea	September 29, 1988

Remarks:

• All times are local Atlanta time ( UTC − 5 ).
• All widths are given in meters (m).

qualification

August 1, 1996, from 10:05 a.m.

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 6.70 m. Since only seven jumpers reached this distance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best athletes from both groups to twelve participants (highlighted in light green). So finally 6.58 m was enough for the final.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Fiona May	Italy	6.58	6.85	-	6.85
2	Chioma Ajunwa	Nigeria	6.64	6.81	-	6.81
3	Sharon Jaklofsky	Netherlands	x	6.69	6.75	6.75
4th	Do Vaszi	Hungary	6.41	6.73	-	6.73
5	Olena Schechowzowa	Ukraine	6.44	6.70	-	6.70
6th	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	United States	6.70	-	-	6.70
	Agata Karczmarek	Poland	6.70	-	-
8th	Nicole Boegman	Australia	x	x	6.67	6.67
9	Niki Xanthou	Greece	x	x	6.60	6.60
10	Lissette Cuza	Cuba	6.45	6.56	6.39	6.56
11	Jelena Perschina	Kazakhstan	6.50	x	x	6.50
12	Marieke Veltman	United States	6.43	6.49	x	6.49
13	Olga Rublyova	Russia	6.47	x	-	6.47
14th	Regla María Cárdenas	Cuba	6.36	6.21	6.42	6.42
15th	Ksenija Predikaka	Slovenia	x	6.37	x	6.37
16	Virge Naeris	Estonia	x	6.26	6.17	6.26
17th	Valentina Gotowska	Latvia	x	x	6.08	6.08
18th	Andrea Avila	Argentina	x	5.92	6.00	6.00
19th	Anzhela Atroshchenko	Belarus	x	x	5.94	5.94
20th	Nilufar Yasmin	Bangladesh	5.19	4.65	5.24	5.24
21st	Béryl Laramé	Seychelles	x	3.88	x	3.88
ogV	Mihaela Gheorghiu	Romania	x	-	-		without space
	Renata Nielsen	Denmark	x	x	x
DNS	Michelle Baptiste	St. Lucia
	Dione Rose	Jamaica

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Iwa Prandschewa	Bulgaria	6.58	6.62	x	6.62
2	Chantal Brunner	New Zealand	x	6.47	6.62	6.62
3	Paraskevi Patoulidou	Greece	6.58	6.09	6.13	6.58
4th	Flora Hyacinth	American Virgin Islands	x	x	6.58	6.58
5	Jacqueline Edwards	Bahamas	6.44	6.55	6.27	6.55
6th	Niurka Montalvo	Cuba	6.48	x	x	6.48
7th	Eunice Barber	Sierra Leone	6.20	6.20	6.45	6.45
8th	Galina Chistjakova	Slovakia	6.33	x	6.26	6.33
9	Denise Lewis	Great Britain	x	x	6.33	6.33
10	Jelena Zintschukova	Russia	x	6.31	x	6.31
11	Diane Guthrie-Gresham	Jamaica	6.27	x	x	6.27
12	Ana Liku	Tonga	x	x	6.06	6.06
13	Elma Muros	Philippines	5.98	6.04	5.99	6.04
14th	Rita Ináncsi	Hungary	6.02	x	x	6.02
15th	Shabana Akhtar	Pakistan	5.72	5.70	5.80	5.80
16	Nicole Devonish	Canada	5.74	5.59	x	5.74
17th	Elena Koshcheyeva	Kazakhstan	x	5.49	5.55	5.55
ogV	Lyudmila Galkina	Russia	x	x	x		without space
	Lacena Golding	Jamaica	x	x	x
	Heli Koivula	Finland	x	x	x
	Inessa Krawez	Ukraine	x	x	x
	Lyudmila Ninova	Austria	x	x	x
	Natallia Sasanovich	Belarus	x	x	x
	Viktoria Vershynina	Ukraine	x	x	x
	Shana Williams	United States	x	x	x

final

American bronze medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee

August 2, 1996, 7:15 p.m.

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, seven over the required qualification distance, five more over their placements. Two Greek women met one participant each from Australia, Bulgaria, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and the USA.

After Heike Drechsler , the German Olympic champion in 1992, was canceled due to injury, the American Jackie Joyner-Kersee was actually the favorite. However, she also suffered from a thigh injury. Other medal candidates were the reigning world champion Fiona May from Italy, who previously started for Great Britain and took third place at the European Championships in 1994 , as well as the Russian European Championship third Inessa Krawez, who had already won the triple jump here.

In the first attempt, the Nigerian Chioma Ajunwa jumped 7.12 m. With 6.90 m, Agata Karczmarek from Poland was in second place. In the second round May reached 7.02 m, which brought her to second place. The Greek Niki Xanthou displaced Karczmarek from third place with 6.97 m. In the next round nothing changed.

In the fourth round the Ukrainian Olena Schechowzowa jumped 6.97 m like Xanthou. Because of her better next best distance, Shekhovzova was now on the bronze rank, Xanthou was fourth. The Greek turned it around with her fifth attempt to 6.95 m and thus initially regained third place. In her last jump Jackie Joyner-Kersee reached 7.00 m and won the bronze medal. But the Olympic champion was the outsider Chioma Ajunwa ahead of Fiona May. Niki Xanthou came in fourth ahead of Olena Schechowzowa and Agata Karczmarek.

Bulgarian Iwa Prandschewa, initially in seventh place with 6.82 m, was convicted of doping with Metandienon and disqualified. Before the following Sydney games, she was banned for life as a repeat offender after another positive doping test.

The level of performance was no longer comparable to the level offered by the athletes at the end of the 1980s, when 7-meter widths were produced in series and the top results were 30 centimeters better than here in Atlanta . This decline in development must be seen above all in connection with a particular high point in the use of prohibited means to improve performance. In numerous publications there are references to doping practices from the 80s, the controls had an even more holey standard than later. So there are in the sense of a clean sport from professional circles u. a. Demands for the withdrawal of all existing athletics records. There is no official evidence or positive doping results for the athletes who had shone with their achievements at the time. But the critical reviews do not come out of nowhere.

Chioma Ajunwa was not only the first Nigerian medalist in the women's long jump . She was also the first ever Olympic champion in Nigeria.
Fiona May was the first Italian medalist in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Chioma Ajunwa	Nigeria	7.12	6.99	6.85	6.84	-	x	7.12
2	Fiona May	Italy	6.68	7.02	6.78	6.73	6.76	6.88	7.02
3	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	United States	6.55	6.75	6.86	x	6.52	7.00	7.00
4th	Niki Xanthou	Greece	x	6.97	x	6.67	6.95	6.85	6.97
5	Olena Schechowzowa	Ukraine	6.84	6.88	x	6.97	x	x	6.97
6th	Agata Karczmarek	Poland	6.90	x	x	x	x	6.65	6.90
7th	Nicole Boegman	Netherlands	6.73	x	x	x	6.55	6.23	6.73
8th	Do Vaszi	Hungary	6.60	x	x	not in the final of the eight best jumpers			6.60
9	Chantal Brunner	Russia	6.45	6.49	6.45				6.49
10	Paraskevi Patoulidou	Greece	x	6.26	6.37				6.37
ogV	Sharon Jaklofsky	Netherlands	x	x	x					without space
DOP	Iwa Prandschewa	Bulgaria	x	x	6.81	x	6.82	x	6.82

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 50f

Web links

• SportsReference Long Jump , accessed March 15, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 91, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 15, 2018

Video

• Women's Long Jump Final Atlanta Olympics 1996 , published June 21, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed March 15, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015 page 799 , accessed on March 15, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 91, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 15, 2018 
3. ↑ Tom Knight in the Telegraph of September 14, 2000 , accessed March 15, 2018
4. ↑ Michael Reinsch, Tabula rasa for track and field records , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, updated on May 3, 2017, accessed on March 15, 2018
5. ↑ “Everything is swallowed” , Der Spiegel H. 18/1990, April 30, 1990, accessed on March 15, 2018
6. ↑ The drama of the dubious diva on derstandard.at, September 24, 2013, accessed on March 15, 2018