Sporting Greats

[Memphis]

I'm not a Triple Jump expert so I looked it up. This is how two coaches start their articles -

"Triple jump technique is much like the game hop scotch that young children play"
Triple Jump Technique and Training

And

"ANYBODY can triple jump"
How to Triple Jump: 10 steps - wikiHow

An able bodied person could easily make a mediocre pathetic jump, with years of training, just like the snooker player making a 50 break.

Eddie the Eagle is a prime example of what I'm talking about. Check this out - "Edwards first represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships, and was ranked 55th in the world and this performance qualified him, as the sole British applicant, for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski jumping competition."

So even though he was utter toilet he was only 54 places behind the WORLDS best ski jumper and competed in the worlds greatest ski jumps competition. Sports nobody do. ()

Im not sure what the 2 links are designed to prove? I could clock a 100m time just as easly as I could set a distance for triple jump, Im no more Usain Bolt than I am Jonathan Edwards. Just because a skill is basic it doesnt mean becoming a world class peformer in either is easy.

Eddy Edwards was shit, he remained shit and didnt qualify for another Olympics due to them making a radical change to the qualification process, they insisted that you were good at it. If Eddy Edwards strolled onto the slopes and won gold he'd be the perfect man to make your point. Unfortunately the only point Eddy Edwards is good for making is that in an event with 54 registered atheletes becoming the 55th best is a piece of piss.

Jonathan Edwards wasnt the 55th best at what he did, he was and still is he best nearly 20 years later.

[Fenster]

I'm not saying Edward's jumps are not special or impressive, to be the greatest in history at anything is beyond awesome.

I just wan't to know how many people in the world actually triple jump? I don't believe few do it, if that's the case, because you need to be superhuman. All athletes from every discipline suffer injuries. Everything is technical, that's why you spend years practising.

So how many triple jumpers compete on the grand prix circuit compared with other events? How many go to athletic clubs to be triple jumpers? How many triple jump competitions are there a year? How many in history have competed at the olympics?

I just assume it's a small number. If not, if the number is actually shitloads, then Edward's achievements are even more impressive than they currently are.

[Fenster]

Being the 55th best in the world at anything is impressive... until you realise no one does it.

[Fenster]

OK i've now become a triple jump expert. Which has led me to concede.

Considering the triple jump originated in the Ancient Olympics and has been a modern Olympics event since the very start, clearly millions must have attempted it.

Edwards record is phenomenal. Almost as impressive as Ronnies 5 minute max. Fact.