Kenny Harrison's '96 season

[Guest]

I just read that Kenta Bell jumped 17.76m. Very nice. Heard he is coaching himself; even more impressive.

In any case, I thought about Kenny Harrison (also self-coached for a while) and his '96 season. Does anyone know if it is true that he apparently only took 6 jumps that entire season leading to his gold medal? I heard he took one jump to qualify for the Olympic Trials. One or two jumps at the OT. And then his jumps at the Olympics.

[Jon]

Re: Kenny Harrison's '96 season

Re: kenny - that's right. At the US Trials, he jumped the windy 18.01 (+3.7w) and then passed the next 5 jumps. In the Olympic qualifying round, he jumped 17.58 (-1.1) on his first jump. Then in the OG final, his series was:

17.99 (0.1w)
Foul
Pass
18.09 (-0.4w)
Pass
Foul



He had a few more competitions after the OG, too.

[gh]

Re: Kenny Harrison's '96 season

The oft-injured Harrison also jumped in OT qualifying round: a foul and 55-1 1/2.

He said (T&FN, September '96) after the OT:

<<The amount of stress that's put on your body jumping 58-feet, 57-feet, 56-feet is a great amount of stress. I think they calculated 4 tons per phase if you're jumping 50-feet.

<<And that's an incredible amount of pressure, so instead of trying to push it out and break the World Record at the Olympic Trials I though it was best to hold off and really try to focus my attention on the Olympic Games.>>