Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump

Clark's first two jumps were fouls, but his third was by far the best of the field. He had used his hat as a marker along the runway for the first two jumps, which Constantine I of Greece (acting as the judge in the event) had declared inconsistent with amateurism; the king removed the hat both times. For the third attempt, Clark did not attempt to use the hat.[1]

This was the first appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. There were 18 entrants, but only 9 men actually started.[2][3]

There was a single round of jumping. Each athlete made three jumps.[2][4]

There were no standing world records (the IAAF began ratifying records in 1912) or Olympic records (as this was the first Games) before the event. Ellery Harding Clark set the initial Olympic record at 6.35 metres.

The exact time of the contest is not known; it was the second event of the afternoon session on Tuesday. The session started at 2:30 p.m.; the long jump came after two heats of the 110 metres hurdles.

As with many early Olympic events, the complete results are unclear and disputed. The table below provides results consistent with the IOC's website results page.[5] The Official Report says that only eight men competed; it lists only four: Chalkokondylis and Skaltsogiannis as the Greeks who competed, and Clark and Garrett as the prize winners. It gives Garrett's distance at 6.00 metres.[4] Olympedia follows the Official Report rather than the IOC results page for Garrett's distance, puts Connolly's best jump at 5.84 metres, gives Chalkokondylis in fourth place (using the 5.74 metres from the IOC), and cites the remaining 5 jumpers all as "also competed" with no distance given; Olympedia also lists the 14 non-starters shown below (though this would make 23 entries rather than the 18 provided by both Olympedia itself and the Official Report).[2] Kluge uses the flat 6 metres for Garrett and puts Connolly's jump (rather than that of Chalkokondylis) at 5.74 metres, marking all six remaining men as "also competed."[6] Zur Megede matches the IOC page through the top five, but Sjöberg is replaced by the Hungarian Desiderius Wein with a distance of 5.64 metres, placing him after Schuhmann; Schuhmann (with the same 5.70 metres as the IOC) is moved up to 6th without Sjöberg and with Chalkokondylis being marked as "also competed."[7] No source lists the results of individual jumps, other than remarking that Clark fouled on his first two attempts and achieved his 6.35 metres on the final one.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Distance	Notes
	Ellery Harding Clark	United States	6.35	OR
	Robert Garrett	United States	6.18
	James Brendan Connolly	United States	6.11
4	Alexandre Tuffère	France	5.98
5	Adolphe Grisel	France	5.83
6	Henrik Sjöberg	Sweden	5.80
7	Alexandros Chalkokondylis	Greece	5.74
8	Carl Schuhmann	Germany	5.70
9	Athanasios Skaltsogiannis	Greece	Unknown
—	Harald Arbin	Sweden	DNS
	Thomas Curtis	United States	DNS
	Nándor Dáni	Hungary	DNS
	Ralph Derr	United States	DNS
	Kurt Doerry	Germany	DNS
	Alfred Flatow	Germany	DNS
	Carl Galle	Germany	DNS
	Fritz Hofmann	Germany	DNS
	Konstantinos Mouratis	Greece	DNS
	Pál Péthy	Hungary	DNS
	Alajos Szokolyi	Hungary	DNS
	Momcsilló Tapavicza	Hungary	DNS
	Friedrich Traun	Germany	DNS
	Hermann Weingärtner	Germany	DNS

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at la84foundation.org)
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0379-0. (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org)
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-342-9.