LONG JUMP RULE CHANGES SPARK CONTROVERSY

What’s Happening?

A year ago, in Feb­ru­ary 2024, World Ath­let­ics announced plans to change the for­mat of the long jump and triple jump. The pro­pos­al involved remov­ing the tra­di­tion­al take­off board with plas­ticine and replac­ing it with a take­off zone. Ini­tial­ly, this was intro­duced as a pilot pro­gram, but even then, it was clear that the idea was high­ly con­tro­ver­sial.

The Proposed Change

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the length of a jump is mea­sured from the white take­off board, which has a plas­ticine strip, to the athlete’s land­ing point in the sand­pit. This method has been in place for decades and requires only a mea­sur­ing tape to deter­mine the result. Ath­letes must push off as close to the plas­ticine strip as pos­si­ble with­out step­ping on it.

This rule forces ath­letes to devel­op a pre­cise skill: tim­ing their approach per­fect­ly to hit the take­off board with max­i­mum effi­cien­cy. If they fail to reach the board, they lose dis­tance. If they step beyond it, the attempt is dis­qual­i­fied. To per­fect their take­off, jumpers con­sid­er fac­tors like wind, sur­face con­di­tions, and their phys­i­cal con­di­tion on the day of com­pe­ti­tion. They some­times take risks, mak­ing fouls in ear­ly attempts to find the per­fect approach. Wet con­di­tions add anoth­er chal­lenge, mak­ing the take­off board slip­pery and increas­ing the risk of injury.

This sys­tem has shaped the rhythm and excite­ment of com­pe­ti­tions, cre­at­ing sus­pense not just in how far an ath­lete jumps but also in whether they will hit the board clean­ly. For decades, this tra­di­tion has been an essen­tial part of the sport’s cul­ture, both for ath­letes and spec­ta­tors.

What Will Change?

World Ath­let­ics Pres­i­dent Sebas­t­ian Coe is con­cerned that 31 per­cent of long jump broad­cast time con­sists of non-action. To address this, offi­cials pro­pose using tech­nol­o­gy to mea­sure the jump from the exact point where the ath­lete push­es off, rather than rely­ing on the take­off board. This means every attempt will count, elim­i­nat­ing fouls.

“We are try­ing to make the com­pe­ti­tion more engag­ing and excit­ing,” said World Ath­let­ics CEO Jon Rid­geon. “At the last World Cham­pi­onships, one-third of the jumps were not count­ed. That is a waste of time. The new approach ensures every jump con­tributes to the com­pe­ti­tion.”

Offi­cials are also work­ing on instant result cal­cu­la­tions to reduce wait times from 20 to 30 sec­onds to mere moments. The plan is to test this sys­tem through­out the 2024 sea­son with top ath­letes. If the tech­nol­o­gy fails, it will not be imple­ment­ed. How­ev­er, if suc­cess­ful, the new rules will be intro­duced at major events in 2026, includ­ing the 2028 Olympics.

What Do Athletes Think?

For a while, the pilot pro­gram was large­ly unno­ticed. Com­peti­tors con­tin­ued jump­ing from the tra­di­tion­al take­off board in all offi­cial events. How­ev­er, the 2025 indoor sea­son brought changes. Reports sur­faced that some inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions in Ger­many had adopt­ed the new sys­tem.

“It is very dif­fi­cult for spec­ta­tors to judge the dis­tance now. You watch an ath­lete jump what looks like 6.50 meters, but the mea­sure­ment comes out as 6.08. In prac­tice, it makes no sense,” said one observ­er.

The new for­mat was also used at the ISTAF Indoor event in Berlin on Feb­ru­ary 14. Swiss hep­tath­lete Annik Kälin, who placed fourth in the hep­tathlon at the Paris Olympics, with­drew in protest.

“I was briefly informed that we would be jump­ing from a take­off zone. As a young ath­lete, I can­not sup­port this change. It is an unwor­thy mod­i­fi­ca­tion,” Kälin said. “This will divide the long jump com­mu­ni­ty, forc­ing ath­letes to take sides.”

“Long jumpers train for years to mas­ter pre­cise take­offs at high speed. This change does not make the sport more excit­ing. The ten­sion of hit­ting the board per­fect­ly is what makes long jump thrilling. If this goes through, jumps from the take­off board will no longer be count­ed in record lists.”

“I feel sor­ry for my fam­i­ly and friends who already bought tick­ets and booked hotels to watch me jump. I also feel sor­ry for the fans and the knowl­edge­able audi­ence that always cre­ates an amaz­ing atmos­phere at these com­pe­ti­tions.”

What’s Next?

The sit­u­a­tion remains high­ly con­tro­ver­sial. The new rules do not sim­ply adjust the sport; they fun­da­men­tal­ly alter its his­to­ry. If imple­ment­ed, past records for both indoor and out­door com­pe­ti­tions will remain unchal­lenged, with ath­letes like Mike Pow­ell, Carl Lewis, Gali­na Chistyako­va, and Heike Drech­sler for­ev­er hold­ing the old records.

The change could also shift the com­pet­i­tive land­scape. Cur­rent­ly, suc­cess requires both phys­i­cal abil­i­ty and the skill to hit the board at the per­fect moment. If this require­ment is removed, ath­letes who pre­vi­ous­ly strug­gled with con­sis­ten­cy may gain an advan­tage.

This could also affect the view­ing expe­ri­ence. The land­ing spot will become irrel­e­vant since each ath­lete will take off from dif­fer­ent points, mak­ing it hard­er for spec­ta­tors to visu­al­ly judge results.

Is the sport ready for such a trans­for­ma­tion? Right now, the answer appears to be no. How­ev­er, the final deci­sion may not rest with the ath­letes or the fans. If the pilot pro­gram is deemed suc­cess­ful, the changes will become per­ma­nent, and the long jump will nev­er be the same again.