Paris Olympics preview: triple jump

Women's triple jump

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• World record-holder and eight-time global champion Yulimar Rojas is injured and won't defend her title
• Leyanis Perez is undefeated outdoors this year and jumped a world lead in her final pre-Paris competition
• World indoor champion Thea LaFond bidding to become Dominica's first Olympic medallist in any sport

For the first time since 2017, an outdoor global title in the women’s triple jump will be won by someone other than Yulimar Rojas.

The dominant Venezuelan, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo three years ago, has unfortunately been forced to skip the entire 2024 season due to an achilles tendon injury, throwing the event wide open.

Leyanis Perez-Hernandez heads to Paris as perhaps the slight favourite. The 22-year-old Cuban has been creeping closer to the top step of the podium at recent major championships, placing fourth at the 2022 World Championships, third at the 2023 edition and second at this year’s World Indoor Championships.

She is undefeated outdoors this year, and last month she would have joined the 15-metre club were it not for the wind being a bit too strong. Her 15.16m leap in Guadalajara was aided by a 2.3m/s breeze, marginally over the allowable limit.

In her final competition before the Olympics – and in what turned out to be the most competitive triple jump contest of the outdoor season so far – Perez-Hernandez came within two centimetres of her PB to win with an outdoor world lead of 14.96m.

It’s not the best outright mark of the year, though. That accolade belongs to Thea LaFond, who produced a leap of 15.01m to win world indoor gold in Glasgow. In so doing, the 30-year-old from Dominica earned her country’s first global title in athletics.

She now wants to become Dominica’s first Olympic medallist in any sport.

LaFond competed at her first Olympics back in 2016, but finished last in qualifying. Five years later in Tokyo, she reached the Olympic final but placed last. Since then, however, she has become far more competitive on the global stage, placing fifth at the past two World Championships.

Significantly, her outdoor (14.90m) and indoor (15.01m) PBs were set in major championship finals.

Ana Peleteiro-Compaore is another proven championship performer. The Spaniard set her PB of 14.87m to take bronze at the last Olympics. Her season’s best of 14.85m, meanwhile, was set when winning gold at the recent European Championships – her second major medal of the year, following world indoor bronze in March.

As a training partner of Rojas, the 28-year-old will be looking to keep the Olympic title in the Ivan Pedroso stable.

World silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk had a delayed start to her season as she was recovering from injury. After missing the World Indoor Championships and the European Championships, the Ukrainian opened her season at the recent Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco and produced a highly encouraging 14.81m to finish third behind Perez and LaFond (14.87m).

The 29-year-old finished just outside the medals in the long jump in Tokyo three years ago, but appears to be in with a good shout of a triple jump medal this time around.

Jamaica fields a strong contingent in the form of two-time world silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, NCAA champion Ackelia Smith and three-time Olympic finalist Kimberly Williams.

Perez-Hernandez’s teammate Liadagmis Povea, meanwhile, increases Cuba’s chances of a medal. She finished sixth at last year’s World Championships and has a PB of 14.93m.

European indoor champion Tuga Danismaz is another good championship performer. She set her PB of 14.57m when taking silver at the recent European Championships.

And keep an eye out for the much-improved French jumper Ilionis Guillaume. She has added more than half a metre to her PB this year, taking a surprise bronze medal at the European Championships. The home crowd could push her beyond her PB of 14.59m.

 

Men's triple jump

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• Defending champion Pedro Pichardo has been in 18-metre form this year
• Jordan Diaz came within 11 centimetres of the world record to win the European title
• World indoor and outdoor champion Hugues Fabrice Zango has won nine of his 10 competitions this year

In recent years, the men’s triple jump has been dominated by two men: Pedro Pichardo and Hugues Fabrice Zango.

But two prodigious talents – Jordan Diaz and Jaydon Hibbert – threaten to shake up proceedings in Paris, making for a potentially thrilling four-way battle. And with just three medals on offer, it means at least one of these men will miss out on the podium.

Hugues Fabrice Zango heads to Paris as the world champion indoors and outdoors. The 31-year-old from Burkina Faso has enjoyed a gradual rise to the top, taking world bronze in 2019 and Olympic bronze in 2021, then world silver in 2022 before landing his two global titles in 2023 and 2024.

Zango, who holds the world indoor record at 18.07m, has a best this year of 17.57m and has won nine of his 10 competitions this season.

It would take a brave person to bet against Pichardo making the podium. Going back to his days as an U20 back in 2012, the Portuguese jumper has won medals at 13 of the 14 international championships he has contested. He is also the defending Olympic champion, and he goes into the Games with plenty of motivation.

Injury forced him to miss the World Championships last year, meaning he couldn’t defend the title he won in 2022. He returned to action this year and produced one of the best jumps of his life at the European Championships, leaping 18.04m, but Diaz went on to sensationally produce a jump of 18.18m to take gold.

The 23-year-old, who won world U18 and U20 titles in 2017 and 2018, is now just 11 centimetres shy of the world record. Lining up against two other 18-metre jumpers could be just what Diaz needs to challenge the long-standard world record.

Hibbert has similarly been touted as a future world record-holder. The 19-year-old Jamaican, who is still an U20 athlete, won the world U20 title in 2022, then set world U20 records of 17.54m (indoors) and 17.87m (outdoors) last year.

He bounded out to 17.70m to lead the qualifying round at the World Championships last year, but then got injured in the first round of the final and could only look on as Zango took gold with 17.64m.

Hibbert has had a much lighter competition programme this year and goes into the Olympics with a best of 17.75m.

Andy Diaz Hernandez was the world-leading performer indoors this year, leaping 17.61m. The 28-year-old – who jumped a PB of 17.75m last year, breaking the Italian record set by his coach, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Fabrizio Donato – has competed outdoors just once this year, leaping 17.00m on 17 July.

Algeria’s Yasser Triki may be some way from joining the 18-metre club, but he is a consistent performer on the circuit and earned his first global medal earlier this year, taking world indoor silver. He set his PB of 17.43m when placing fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.

Salif Mane wasn’t a well-known name on the triple jump scene before this year. Heading into 2024, the 22-year-old had a PB of 16.79m, but he smashed that to win the NCAA title with 17.14m, then improved it again to take the US title with 17.52m.

Thomas Gogois is another big improver this year. A 16.83m performer before this year, the French triple jumper smashed through the 17-metre barrier for the first time to take European bronze with 17.38m.

China has claimed triple jump medals at the past two Olympic Games. Zhu Yaming, the silver medallist in Tokyo, will be in Paris, but Su Wen is the leading Chinese entrant this year. The World University Games champion produced a PB of 17.17m in May.

Other contenders include 2022 world indoor champion Lazaro Martinez of Cuba and 2018 world indoor silver medallist Almir dos Santos of Brazil.

Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics