Global Sports
On August 7, at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Jonathan Edwards produced the two greatest triple jumps the world had seen, one after the other.
In an enthralling 20 minutes of track and field history, he became the first man to jump beyond 18 meters, and the first to go 60 feet.
When recalling that day, the way the Englishman easily switches between present and past tenses highlights how vivid his memories are, even three decades on. “It’s neither recent nor far away,” the 59-year-old tells The Athletic when asked if, as the cliche goes, it “feels like yesterday.”
“It’s just something completely separate, almost completely other. I mean, it’s so far removed from my life now, the thought of jumping that far, being an international athlete, breaking a world record… it is surreal.”
