World class high-jumpers are obviously unbelievable athletes, but it can be difficult for the uninitiated to quantify their talents. A far fewer number of people high-jumped than played basketball, soccer, football, or baseball as youths, and fewer still high-jump recreationally in lieu of shooting, kicking, or throwing a ball. The majority just don’t have the necessary frame of reference to appreciate the high-jumping spectacle to the level that it deserves.
Thankfully, Trent Stellingwerff of the Canadian Sport Institute made getting that frame of reference easy. Instead of hurting ourselves while attempting to leap sideways over the back of our couch, we can simply look at the photo below to accurately gauge the height of Mutaz Essa Barshim’s champion – and second-best ever – jump at the 2014 Diamond Series in Brussels.
This puts 2.40m high-jumping in perspective: Barshim jumps 2.43m compared to a basketball rim = incredible! pic.twitter.com/xqk2Qn14Jc
— Trent Stellingwerff, PhD / CSEP-CEP / FACSM / ChPC (@TStellingwerff) September 11, 2014
Insane. Barshim, parallel to the ground, gets his waist level with at least the height of the backboard – approximately 9-feet, 4-inches.
Now watch video of Barshim’s historic leap.
No doubt impressive, but less so than Stellingwerff’s photoshop, right? Barshim’s 2.43 meter leap converts to nearly eight feet. While that makes things easier on we stubborn Americans, it still doesn’t do his feat justice. Why? Our extremely amateur take is that the height of the padding behind the horizontal bar makes it seem as if high-jumpers are flying much lower than they actually are.
See what we mean?
Congratulations to Barshim for an absolutely mind-bending accomplishment, and thanks to Stellingwerff for offering the perspective necessary to comprehend it.
(H/T Bleacher Report)
What do you think?
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