The discipline we will cover this time can be traced back to Ancient times in the Greek Olympics. Athletes carried weights while jumping and released them in the air in order to increase their momentum. They were called halters and were between 1 and 4.5 kg’s heavy. When taking off, the athletes stepped on a simple board which was called bater and landed in a temporary dugged-up area called skamma. It was also seen as one of the most difficult disciplines due to the high level of skill it required. In addition, the athlete was accompanied by music and special rhythms that should help with the complex movements he performs. In 1896 it was first included to the modern Olympics for men and in 1948 for women. As you will see in this article, the Long Jump has changed a lot over the last thousands of years.
Technique

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The regular technique for the Long Jump is divided into five phases: the approach run, the last two strides, takeoff, action in the air, and landing.
The role of the approach is to generate maximum velocity before the takeoff while the speed and the angle are the most important factors for the travelled distance. As a consequence, the faster the approach run at the last steps, the larger the distance jumped by the athlete making speed a crucial influence in performance. Elite athletes also use 20-22 steps and they wear special long jump spikes which gives them much more grip.
The last two steps are especially important as they will set up the velocity with which the athlete will encounter the jump. Αthletes will lower their centre of gravity and prepare their body for the vertical impulse while they try to leave the ground with an angle of 20 degrees or less.
At the takeoff the athlete places his foot on the take-off board, keeps his torso up and moves his hips forward. Here the technique can vary from athlete to athlete as some may use a kick-style, others a double arm or a sprint motion.
When in the air, there are three techniques that come into use: the hang, the sail, and the hitchkick. They all combat the forward rotation resulting from the take-off.
The landing of a Long Jump can be influenced only a little bit by different techniques. Nevertheless, it is still important to be careful as f.ex.an athlete can land on his feet and be unbalanced and therefore lose distance by falling back.
Rules

• The runway is usually 40 meters long and has the same surface as a usual track
• If the athlete crosses the take-off line on the board, the jump won’t be measured at all. Usually the organizers will use a high resolution camera and place it next to the take-off line in order to detect fouls
• The distance of the jump will always be measured from the take-off line to the nearest break in the sand. As a result, athletes will try to get as close to the takeoff-line as possible to gather the most distance.
• Wind speed has to be under 2.0 meters per second to be considered legal
• In qualification rounds, participants receive three attempts for achieving the qualification distance. In final, usually eight athletes are left as they complete their three final jumps
• Only the longest jump out of all attempts counts. If there is a tie, the next-longest legal jump will be used as tie-breaker
  Records
  The first World Record that was ever recorded was done by Peter O’Connor from Ireland in 1901 when he jumped 7.61 meters. In contrast, today’s world record has the distance of 8.95 meters by Mike Powell, performed in 1991. For women, it was Galina Chistyakova in 1988, more than 30 years ago. She jumped 7.52 meters which is more than 2 meters farther than the first women’s long jump world record (5.16 by Mejzlikova in 1922).

Long Jump
Long jump – Wikipedia