Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Laboratory for Functional Morphology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
J Sports Sci. 2021 Aug;39(16):1800-1806. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2021.1898175. Epub 2021 Mar 11.
During the first half of the 20th century, extraordinary high jumping performances of East-African athletes were observed. These athletes used a specific native jumping style called Gusimbuka Urukiramende. Eye-witnesses believed that these performances could have been world-records and that these athletes could have competed at the Olympics. However, these athletes never participated in international competitions and there is no other proof to support these performance claims. We have analysed historical photos and cine sequences of these jumps, documented the movement analysis of this technique, quantified performance and compared it to contemporaneous elite performances. Our analyses demonstrate that Gusimbuka Urukiramende athletes did not jump as high as the world record. Nevertheless, even though they used a suboptimal jump technique (because they had to lift their bodies higher to cross the bar) they could cross bar heights of 188 cm or 106% body height and as such their performance still was worthy of participation to the Olympics.
在 20 世纪上半叶，人们观察到东非运动员的跳高表现非常出色。这些运动员采用了一种名为 Gusimbuka Urukiramende 的独特本土跳高风格。目击者认为，这些表现本可以打破世界纪录，这些运动员本可以参加奥运会。然而，这些运动员从未参加过国际比赛，也没有其他证据可以支持这些表现的说法。我们分析了这些跳跃的历史照片和电影片段，记录了这项技术的运动分析，量化了表现，并将其与同期的精英表现进行了比较。我们的分析表明，Gusimbuka Urukiramende 运动员的跳跃高度并没有达到世界纪录。然而，尽管他们使用了一种不太理想的跳跃技术（因为他们必须将身体抬得更高才能越过横杆），但他们仍然可以跳过 188 厘米或 106%身高的横杆，因此他们的表现仍然有资格参加奥运会。
