Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2004 Games were silver medalist Marian Oprea of Romania, bronze medalist Danil Burkenya of Russia, fifth-place finisher Jadel Gregório of Brazil, ninth-place finisher Kenta Bell of the United States, and Phillips Idowu of Great Britain, who had not made a legal mark in the final but whose qualifying round score (if it could have been carried over) would have placed him fifth. Nelson Évora of Portugal, who had finished 40th in 2004, had become the best triple jumper in the world over the intervening four years, winning the 2007 world championship and coming into the Beijing Games as the favorite.[2]

Macedonia, Morocco, and Slovakia each made their first appearance in the event. The United States competed for the 25th time, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

The qualifying standards were 17.10 m (26.9 ft) (A standard) and 16.80 m (26.41 ft) (B standard).[3] Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period.[4] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936. In the qualifying round, each jumper received three attempts to reach the qualifying distance of 17.10 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. In the final round, each athlete had three jumps; the top eight received an additional three jumps, with the best of the six to count.[2][5]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Jonathan Edwards (GBR)	18.29	Gothenburg, Sweden	7 August 1995
Olympic record	Kenny Harrison (USA)	18.09	Atlanta, United States	27 August 1996

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition. The following national records were set during the competition:

Nation	Athlete	Round	Distance
Bahamas	Leevan Sands	Final	17.59

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)