by Cassie Escriture

Created on: July 21, 2009

Like so many track and field events, the triple jump has its roots in ancient athletic competition, including the first Olympiad in Ancient Greece and ancient Irish games from millennia ago. The sport's tradition has carried on and is still a competitive event in the Olympics today. It was officially incorporated in the first incarnation of the modern games in 1896 and has been included ever since. While rules and techniques have changed over time, it has endured as a fascinating event of strength and agility.

WHAT IS TRIPLE JUMP?

The triple jump event consists of an athlete's sprint down a runway and three regulated types of jumps in succession, ending in a sand pit. The athlete who jumps the farthest after his or her final jump wins the competition. This is the essence of the event, though the specific rules have changed over the years.

THE ANCIENT ROOTS

Since triple jump first became a competitive event, the types of jumps required in the rules have changed. Also known as the "hop, step, and jump" event, triple jump rules dictate the order in which an athlete can take off on specific feet. In the early games, athletes could jump in whatever order they wanted: they could alternate feet (e.g. run and jump off their right, land and jump off their left, and then land and jump off their right foot again), or use the same foot twice in a row (e.g. right, left, left; right, right, right, etc.). According to legend, in one of the Ancient Greek competitions at Delphi Phayllos of Kroton jumped 55 feet. However, we do not know his chosen technique. When the event was incorporated into the modern Olympic Games in 1896, the rules were formalized.

MODERN TRIPLE JUMP

The current rules for triple jump state that the competitor runs down a runway at least 40 meters long, take a leap behind a line at the takeoff line, lands on his take off leg, takes a step onto the other foot, and then jumps. (This is the right, left, left example from above.) However, the 1896 Olympics observed the rule of two hops on the same foot first (i.e. right, right, left). The standing triple jump was also included in the earliest modern Olympiad, though it has since been cut from the event schedule.

James Connolly of the United States won the first triple jump competition in the 1896 Olympics, jumping 44 feet 11 and inches. But the sport has come along way since then, as the world record for men has changed 24 times, starting at 15.52 meters for Daniel Ahearn (U.S.) in 1911 and culminating with Jonathan Edwards (Great Britain), the current world record holder, at 18.29 meters jumped in 1995. Nine countries have produced world record holders, one of the most diverse of any Olympic events. Nelson Evora (Portugal) is the most recent Olympic champion.

Since the rules have solidified, the women's world records have also turned over many times. The record has changed hands twenty times, starting with Elizabeth Stine (U.S.) in 1922 jumping 10.32 meters and culminating in current record holder Inessa Kravets (Ukraine) jumping 15.50 meters in 1995.

Despite the amount of time since the records have been broken, triple jump continues to be a popular sport, practiced and perfected on high school tracks and Olympic runways the world over. Even if rules continue to change, we will no doubt witness further jumps and higher flights over the next centuries.

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