Carl Lewis against his main rival of the last few years, Mike Powell, the silver medalist in the event from the 1988 Olympics and the top-ranked long jumper of 1990. Lewis had at that point not lost a long jump competition in a decade, winning the 65 consecutive meets in which he competed. Powell had been unable to defeat Lewis, despite sometimes putting in jumps near world-record territory, only to see them ruled fouls or, as with other competitors such as Larry Myricks, putting in leaps that Lewis himself had only rarely surpassed, only to see Lewis surpass them on his next
1928 United States Olympic Trials (track and field) (47.0) two months earlier, was surprisingly eliminated as he only placed fifth; Spencer and the sixth finalist, Fred Alderman, were named to the Olympic 4 × 400 meter relay team. The other two Olympic relay runners were decided by an extra race for those eliminated in the semi-finals, won by George Baird ahead of John Lewis; however, Lewis was replaced with Barbuti after the latter won an Olympic gold in the individual event. The 400 meter hurdles final was run before the storm arrived; Morgan Taylor, the 1924 Olympic champion, set a new world record (52.0) but still only narrowly