Stepping Up in Class : With One Giant Leap, Powell Earns the Respect That Has Escaped Him

After erasing Bob Beamon’s name from track and field’s record book, Mike Powell recalled the last time he saw the man who held the long jump world record for 23 years. It was this summer at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, in the U.S. Olympic Festival, and Powell said that it is not a fond memory.

“I remember seeing him walking out of the stadium when I was on the runway,” Powell, of Rancho Cucamonga, said at a news conference Saturday, less than 24 hours after he broke the previous record by two inches with a jump of 29 feet 4 1/2 inches in the World Championships at the National Stadium.

“I took personal offense at that. I was thinking, ‘Don’t walk out when I’m on the runway.’ ”

But Powell said that he was not necessarily surprised by the slight, whether or not intended.

“I have a lot of respect for Bob Beamon, but I don’t feel I get the same respect from him,” Powell said. “All I hear him talking about is Carl Lewis and (Larry) Myricks.

“He doesn’t mention my name in the same breath a lot of times. Hopefully, now that I’ve broken the record, he has the same respect for me.”

Powell, 27, was 4 years old when Beamon jumped 29-2 1/2 in the 1968 Summer Olympics at Mexico City, but the former UC Irvine and UCLA athlete said he has a videotape of the previous record.

“I watched it every so often, not for technical reasons but just to get excited about breaking the record. A lot of people would look at it and say, ‘You can’t break that.’ I looked at it as, ‘Wow, you can do that.’

“But I haven’t looked at it for over a year. After I had jumps that were out there but were fouls I would watch my own jumps because they were just as far. I got more motivation from watching myself.”

Powell said he believes he had several jumps in recent years that would have threatened the world record if he had not fouled. He fouled so often that his coach, Randy Huntington of Fresno, said he was known among long jumpers as “Mike Foul.” Powell had a long foul on his fourth jump Friday night, but it was on the next effort that he broke the world record.

Lewis, who had three jumps longer than 29 feet and still finished second as his 10-year, 65-meet streak in the event ended, said afterward Powell might never jump so far again.

“I’m the world champion and I’m the world-record holder,” Powell said. “His streak is over, so he really has nothing to say.”

Powell, who had jobs at various times in a warehouse and a pizza parlor and as a security guard before he began to earn a living in track and field after winning a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, said he received a $50,000 bonus from his sponsor. It would have been $100,000 if he had been wearing the company’s logo instead of USA on his jersey. Agents said Saturday that he also will earn as much as $50,000 per meet in Europe, as compared to the $10,000 to $12,000 he received before breaking the record.

But Powell said that he does not believe success will change him “as long as I realize what I’m doing.”

“I’m running and jumping in dirt,” he said. “When you break it down, who really cares about that?”