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Jonathan Edward's dream of an Olympic Gold medal finally came true at
Sydney's Stadium Australia on Monday 25th September 2000. In front of a
record Olympic crowd of 112, 524 his third round leap of 17.71 metres (pictured above)
took him into the lead from Russia's Denis Kapustin (17.46m) which he
did not relinqish. Cuba's Yoel Garcia's sixth round leap of 17.47m was
the closest his challengers came and the crushing disappointment of
Atlanta four years earlier was laid to rest. Jonathan, who had leapt
17.88 metres in Atlanta said afterwards "I was overwhelmed at the end. I
was on the point of crying a number of times and I had to choke back
the tears. I couldn't believe I was in this stadium, at the Games and
that I was the Olympic champion.
It was almost too much. I thought if I
was going to win an Olympic title, it would be in Atlanta. To come here
at 34 and win the gold medal has been fabulous". He had good reason to
suspect that the elusive Olympic gold had passed him by. Since his
stunning world records of 1995 he had been the perennial "man to beat"
and someone always had (at the '96 Olympics and both the '97 & '99
World championships). But not in Australia. No records were theatened,
(Kenny Harrison's 18.09m Olympic record set in Atlanta for example) but
the achievement of the British 'team' in Sydney of Edwards, Larry Achike
(5th. with 17.29m) and Phillips Idowu (6th with 17.08m) was unique -
three men in the first six places.
Jonathan's winning leap was his best
of the year and achieved under the cloud of a family bereavement, his
wife's mother had died (not unexpectedly) on the day he arrived in
Sydney and at one stage he had contemplated returning home. (George
Herringshaw)
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