He set a personal best of 17.35 m (56 ft 11 in) in his Olympic victory – a mark which remains the Estonian record.

In 1980, Uudmäe's coach, Jaan Jürgenson, was nominated as the USSR Coach of the Year , and Jaak himself as the USSR Master Sportsman of the Year.

[2][3] His victory at the 1980 Summer Olympics was adjudicated by an all-Soviet panel.

[4] Some observers later claimed that the bronze medalist João Carlos de Oliveira and fifth-placer Ian Campbell both produced multiple jumps longer than Uudmäe's, though the Soviet judges ruled all these as fouls, to protestations from the athletes and questioning by several observers.

Uudmäe's longest jump was also ruled as a foul.