Larry Myricks

Larry Myricks ( born March 10, 1956 in Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi) is a former American track and field athlete.

Life

Myricks was the world's best long jumper in the 1970s. In 1976 he took part in his first in Montreal Olympics and was considered one of the co-favorites. In a warm-up jump ahead of the final However, it a mishap: He buckled around on landing and broke his ankle. In 1979, he was the number one in the world rankings in the long jump, but the Olympic boycott of 1980 destroyed the American dream of an Olympic gold medal. 1984 should be the dream finally become a reality, but now another American was at the center of the action. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he was fourth and the new star Carl Lewis won gold. Another start-up took Myricks at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Although it won again Lewis, but Myricks, now 32 years old, won the bronze medal his first Olympic medal.

1990 Myricks has been banned for doping with phenylpropanolamine. At the age of 35 he took part in one of the most legendary long jump competitions in the history of athletics: In the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, the world champion Mike Powell jumped a world record of 8.95 m and Carl Lewis, the runner-up with 8.91 m nor the old world record distance of Bob Beamon from the year 1968. Myricks, who scored 8.42 m, after all, could still secure the bronze medal, which he won in 1987 in Rome. At first he was placed due to a fraud of the judges only in fourth place behind the locals Giovanni Evangelisti, but received subsequently the bronze medal.

The rapid American was also still an excellent 200 -meter runner. For the U.S., he competed in the 1983 World Championship in Helsinki next to the long jump and sprint through this route. He was fifth in the 1983 world rankings.