American long jump great Greg Bell, who had been the oldest living Olympic gold medallist in athletics, has died at the age of 94. Bell breathed his last on January 25, according to World Athletics which paid tribute to the 1956 Olympic long jump gold medallist. “World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Greg Bell, the 1956 Olympic long jump champion, died on Saturday at the age of 94. He had been the oldest living Olympic gold medallist in athletics,” it said.
Bell was the world’s leading men’s long jumper of the 1950s. As well as winning the Olympic title in Melbourne, his personal best of 8.10m he produced in Austin, USA in 1957 was just three centimetres off the world record that had been set by Jesse Owens in 1935.
He also jumped 8.09m in 1956 and 8.10m again in 1959.
Bell was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in the USA on November 7, 1930 and he attended Garfield High School.
After starting work and then serving in the army, he joined Indiana University and remained undefeated in the long jump throughout his collegiate career, including wins at the NCAA Championships.
At the 1956 Olympic Games, a 26-year-old Bell jumped 7.83m in challenging conditions to win by 15cm ahead of his compatriot John Bennett.
Bell went on to secure silver at the Pan American Games in Chicago in 1959 and retired after finishing fourth at the US Olympic Trials in 1960.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, Bell later became a dentist. He was the director of dentistry at Logansport State Hospital for 50 years, before his retirement in 2020 at the age of 89.
As well as being an Indiana University Hall of Famer, Bell was inducted into the US National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1988.
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