Triple jump at the Olympics

The triple jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's triple jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's triple jump is one of the more recent additions to the programme, having been first contested in 1996. It became the third Olympic jumping event for women after the high jump and long jump.

Triple jump at the Olympic Games
Willie Banks in the 1988 Olympic triple jump competition
Overview
Sport	Athletics
Gender	Men and women
Years held	Men: 1896 – 2016 Women: 1996 – 2016
Olympic record
Men	18.09 m Kenny Harrison (1996)
Women	15.39 m Françoise Mbango Etone (2008)
Reigning champion
Men	Christian Taylor (USA)
Women	Caterine Ibargüen (COL)

The Olympic records for the event are 18.09 m (59 ft 4 in) for men, set by Kenny Harrison in 1996, and 15.39 m (50 ft 5 ³⁄₄ in) for women, set by Françoise Mbango Etone in 2008. The men's triple jump world record was broken at the competition in 1924, 1932, 1936, 1956 and 1968. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, three men improved the record a total of five times at the high altitude of Mexico City.[1] The women's world record has never been broken at the Olympics and the current mark of 15.50 m (50 ft 10 in), set in 1995, pre-dates the first Olympic event.[2]

James Brendan Connolly was the first Olympic triple jump champion and, as it was the first event to conclude in 1896, he was also the first Olympic champion of the modern era.[3] Inessa Kravets, the world record holder, became the first women's champion 100 years later. American Christian Taylor and Colombian Caterine Ibargüen are the reigning Olympic champions from 2016.

Viktor Saneyev is the event's most successful athlete as he was Olympic champion three times consecutively from 1968 to 1976, as well as runner-up in 1980. Françoise Mbango Etone is the only woman to win two Olympic triple jump titles. Saneyev, Vilho Tuulos and Tatyana Lebedeva are the only three athletes to have won more than two Olympic medals in the event. The United States is the most successful nation in the event, with eight gold medals to its name. The Soviet Union is the next most successful, with four golds.

A short-lived standing triple jump variant of the event was contested in 1900 and 1904 and standing jumps specialist Ray Ewry won both gold medals.