Athletics at the 1908 London Summer Games:

The British Isles had no top jumper since Ireland's Peter O'Connor had retired after the 1906 Olympics. America also was lacking a dominant long jumper as Meyer Prinstein was no longer competing. O'Connor was the holder of the world record of 24-11¾ (7.61), which he had set in 1901 and which, amazingly enough, remained an Irish record until 1990.

Frank Irons (USA) easily surpassed his best form at home and his victory was one of the major upsets of the 1908 Olympics. He led the qualifying with 24-5 (7.44) and improved to 24-6 (7.48) in the final. He was the only one of the three finalists to improve on his performance in the qualifying round and his winning mark placed him third on the all-time list behind O'Connor and Prinstein. Irons later won the AAU long jump title in both 1909 and 1910 and in 1909 also won the triple jump. He competed at the 1912 Olympics as well, but finished 9th in the long jump.