Christian Olsson of Sweden means the triple jump (© Getty Images)
A little more than two years ago, when Christian Olsson turned his attention from a potentially promising high jump career to seriously concentrate on the triple jump, many of his native Swedes predicted greatness in that event for the then-21-year-old Göteborg athlete.
Olsson listened to them, took them seriously, and tonight (Monday 25 Aug) proved them correct by completing the fast ascent to the summit of the triple jump world. It was a definitive win, totally unchallenged, which neatly complements the world indoor title he won last winter in Birmingham.
“Tonight was absolutely a dream come true, the biggest thing that has ever happened to me, “Olsson responded to the opening question in his victory press conference.
“It’s hard to describe. I think you all should go out and train a lot and do it yourself, so you can find out,” he said, seeming to joke with his audience but never losing his serious tone of voice.
The slender Swede seemed hell bent to leave Paris with the gold from the moment he entered the stadium for the first time. With a 17.56 leap on Saturday, he added a welcome jolt to an otherwise sleep-inducing qualifying round by posting the third-best performance ever in an elimination competition.
And tonight, his game plan was not much different, with a leadoff 17.72 - the second-longest outdoor mark of his career - quickly putting the competition out of reach for all the rest.
Such intensity is a hallmark of Olsson’s competition psyche and has been the underlying reason for his almost unparalleled consistency over his three international seasons.
Ever since surpassing triple jumping’s 17-metre “threshold of excellence” for the first time in Helsinki on a cold, rainy night in June 2001- in a Grand Prix meeting which saw the young Swede defeat world-record holder Jonathan Edwards for the first time - Olsson has reached that mark in fifty of his last fifty-three competitions.
Ask any triple jumper: That kind of consistency is almost unheard-of.
And it comes out of training methods and philosophy handed down from Olsson’s first coach, Viljo Nousiainen, who had been responsible for the high jumping success of former world-record holder Patrik Sjöberg. Sjöberg tinkered with the triple jump under the Finnish-born Nousiainen’s tutelage, and it was only natural that the young high-jumping Olsson should experiment along the same path.
A triple jump silver medal in the 1999 European junior championships proved that Olsson had talent in that area, just as there was in the high jump, as evidenced by his gold medal one day earlier.
By that time, however, Nouisianen had become the sudden victim of a fatal heart attack, and the Örgryte club’s coaching duties had been taken over by a most unlikely candidate.
Yannick Tregaro, then a 21-year-old high jumper in Olsson’s training group, had himself been a world junior finalist three years earlier in 1996. But with Olsson now in need of immediate attention in preparing for the European juniors, he put his own sports career aside to assume the role of coach.
“It was a little hard for me in the beginning because Yannick and I had been good friends before.” Olsson recalls of the realization that his former teammate was now to be his coach. “Suddenly, he was going to be my trainer, and I had to take orders from him.”
Olsson and Tregaro quickly sorted out any athlete-coach differences and are still enjoying a profitable relationship four years on, as evidenced by tonight’s success. And their friendship is permanently bonded through their memory of Nousiainen.
“As the World Championships came closer and closer this past week, I thought of Viljo frequently,” Olsson confided after his victory.
As Edwards exited the competition arena tonight for the final time after suddenly announcing his retirement this past weekend, Olsson acknwledges that for the moment there is a vacuum at the top of the triple jump. And with no individual ready to challenge him on a meet-to-meet basis, one could easily see his goal of an 18-metre jump slipping away.
Olsson is quick to disagree.
“Jonathan helped me cross a lot of thresholds in a shorter period than it would have taken me alone, but I think I’m performing so well now that I know what it takes to jump 18 metres even without him around. My motivation for this will still be high under the right circumstances.”
