How Far Can Man Go

In this chapter we address the question of “What is the Largest Jump at Man’s reach, given today’s state of the art?” To answer that question it will be used the best from the best, i.e., the data will be collected from the best “jumpers” from World Athletics Competitions—“Long Jump Men Outdoors” event. Our approach to the problem is based on the probability theory of extreme values (EVT) and the corresponding statistical techniques. We shall only use the top performances of World top lists. Our estimated ultimate record, i.e., the right endpoint of the jumping event, tells us what is possible to infer about the possible personal best mark, given today’s knowledge, sports conditions and rules.