Olympic Legend Carl Lewis Questions Long Jump Format Change Proposal

The international governing body for track and field, World Athletics (WA), is proposing a new format for the long jump event. This proposed change involves measuring jumps from where an athlete takes off to where they land in the pit, instead of the current method which measures from the take-off board to where the foot lands beyond it. The new format could potentially be trialed with a take-off zone of around one meter. However, this plan has faced skepticism from several Olympians including Carl Lewis who has publicly criticized the idea. Under the current rules, a foul is called when an athlete's foot crosses the line on the wooden take-off board. WA aims to explore the introduction of a "take-off zone" for measuring jumps.