Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the high jump in Paris (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2024 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the jumping events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of all the other event groups.
Women’s high jump
Season top list
| 2.10m | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | Paris | 7 July |
| 2.03m | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | Canberra | 27 January |
| 2.00i | Lamara Distin (JAM) | Fayetteville | 24 February |
| 2.00i | Natalya Spiridonova (RUS) | Moscow | 25 February |
| 2.00i | Rachel Glenn (USA) | Boston | 9 March |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | 1494 |
| 2 | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | 1421 |
| 3 | Angelina Topic (SRB) | 1347 |
| 4 | Iryna Gerashchenko (UKR) | 1341 |
| 5 | Eleanor Patterson (AUS) | 1336 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | 2.00m |
| 🥈 | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | 2.00m |
| 🥉 | Iryna Gerashchenko (UKR) | 1.95m =SB |
| 🥉 | Eleanor Patterson (AUS) | 1.95m =SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) 2.00m
World Indoor Championships: Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) 1.99m
Wanda Diamond League: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) 1.97m
European Championships: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) 2.01m
African Championships: Rose Amoanimaa Yeboah (GHA) 1.87m
Oceanian Championships: Keeley O’Hagan (NZL) 1.86m
World U20 Championships: Angelina Topic (SRB) 1.91m
Season snapshot
- Rarely have two athletes dominated one event in such a way as Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers. Of the top 16 winning high jump clearances of 2024, the duo combined to own 13 of them.
- Olyslagers began her season by equalling her own Oceanian record of 2.03m, then earned her first global gold medal in March, winning the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow when she cleared 1.99m and Mahuchikh could not.
- Mahuchikh would earn the biggest acclaim of the year, however. In July at the Wanda Diamond League stop in Paris, she jumped a PB of 2.07m, then raised the bar to a world record of 2.10m and cleared it easily on her first attempt. It broke the previous record of 2.09m from 1987 by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova.
- Back in Paris at the Olympics, no one in the final could reach such heights, but Mahuchikh edged Olyslagers on fewer misses. The Ukrainian and Australian stars finished 1-2 at the Wanda Diamond League final, as well, separated again only by countback.
- Angelina Topic of Serbia did not advance to the Olympic final due to an ankle injury, but she ended her season with a world U20 title from Lima.
Men’s high jump
Season top list
| 2.37m | Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) | Rome | 11 June |
| 2.36i | Hamish Kerr (NZL) | Glasgow | 3 March |
| 2.36m | Shelby McEwen (USA) | Paris | 10 August |
| 2.34m | JuVaughn Harrison (USA) | Baton Rouge | 10 April |
| 2.34m | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | Paris | 10 August |
| 2.34m | Stefano Sottile (ITA) | Paris | 10 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Hamish Kerr (NZL) | 1442 |
| 2 | Shelby McEwen (USA) | 1382 |
| 3 | Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) | 1365 |
| 4 | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | 1343 |
| 5 | Oleh Doroshchuk (UKR) | 1342 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Hamish Kerr (NZL) | 2.36m =AR |
| 🥈 | Shelby McEwen (USA) | 2.36m PB |
| 🥉 | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | 2.34m SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Hamish Kerr (NZL) 2.36m
World Indoor Championships: Hamish Kerr (NZL) 2.36m
Wanda Diamond League: Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) 2.34m
European Championships: Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) 2.37m
African Championships: Brian Raats (RSA) 2.18m
Oceanian Championships: Yual Reath (AUS) 2.28m
World U20 Championships: Scottie Vines (USA) 2.25m
Season snapshot
- Three years after Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi agreed to share high jump gold at the Tokyo Olympics rather than go to a jump-off, New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr and Shelby McEwen of the US had the same opportunity at the Paris Olympics with identical jumps up to 2.36m. Instead of a joint gold, however, they chose a jump-off, with McEwen later saying he had agreed after Kerr had suggested they press on.
- Kerr’s eventual winning height in Paris – which earned New Zealand its first Olympic medal in the men’s event in history – equalled his Oceanian record.
Hamish Kerr in the high jump at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
- Until Paris, Tamberi appeared in position to retain his gold medal from Tokyo after he won the European title in a world-leading 2.37m. However, before the Olympics his preparation was interrupted by kidney pain that led him to visit a hospital before the qualifying round in Paris.
- Barshim’s bronze medal added to a storied career that had already seen him earn two silver medals and gold at previous Olympics. In July, Barshim announced the Paris Olympics would be the last of his career.
- In August, Scottie Vines jumped a PB of 2.25m to become only the second US man and first since Andra Manson in 2002 to win gold in the high jump at a World U20 Championships.
Women’s pole vault
Season top list
| 4.92m | Molly Caudery (GBR) | Toulouse | 22 June |
| 4.90m | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | Paris | 7 August |
| 4.88m | Angelica Moser (SUI) | Monaco | 12 July |
| 4.85m | Katie Moon (USA) | Chula Vista | 2 June |
| 4.85m | Alysha Newman (CAN) | Paris | 7 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | 1474 |
| 2 | Alysha Newman (CAN) | 1399 |
| 3 | Angelica Moser (SUI) | 1395 |
| 4 | Molly Caudery (GBR) | 1379 |
| 5 | Katie Moon (USA) | 1369 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | 4.90m SB |
| 🥈 | Katie Moon (USA) | 4.85m =SB |
| 🥉 | Alysha Newman (CAN) | 4.85m NR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Nina Kennedy (AUS) 4.90m
World Indoor Championships: Molly Caudery (GBR) 4.80m
Wanda Diamond League: Nina Kennedy (AUS) 4.88m
European Championships: Angelica Moser (SUI) 4.78m
African Championships: Mire Reinstorf (RSA) 4.10m
Oceanian Championships: Elyssia Kenshole (AUS) 3.80m
World U20 Championships: Molly Haywood (USA) 4.47m
Season snapshot
- Expectations for the Paris Olympics were upended during qualification when Great Britain’s Molly Caudery failed to make the final. Caudery’s absence was stunning because it came less than two weeks after the world indoor champion had cleared 4.92m, a world-leading mark that lifted her to become the seventh-best performer of all time.
- Given an opening in the Olympic final, Nina Kennedy took advantage by shaking off an early miss at 4.70m before first-attempt clearances at 4.80m, 4.85m and 4.90m. Kennedy wasn’t a shock winner, as her career had been building to such heights following a bronze at the 2022 World Championships and a shared gold, with USA’s Katie Moon, at the 2023 World Championships.
Nina Kennedy in the pole vault at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- Kennedy ultimately finished the season with three of the five top clearances, including two jumps of 4.88m in Monaco and Brussels. The latter earned Kennedy the Wanda Diamond League title.
- Moon had followed her Olympic gold in Tokyo with consecutive world gold medals but her defence in 2024 was complicated by nagging achilles tendinosis.
Men’s pole vault
Season top list
| 6.26m | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | Chorzow | 25 August |
| 6.01m | Sam Kendricks (USA) | Berlin | 1 September |
| 6.00i | Chris Nilsen (USA) | Albuquerque | 16 February |
| 6.00m | Emmanouil Karalis (GRE) | Chorzow | 25 August |
| 5.97m | Ernest John Obiena (PHI) | Bydgoszcz | 20 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | 1625 |
| 2 | Sam Kendricks (USA) | 1453 |
| 3 | Emmanouil Karalis (GRE) | 1426 |
| 4 | Ernest John Obiena (PHI) | 1409 |
| 5 | KC Lightfoot (USA) | 1365 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | 6.25m WR |
| 🥈 | Sam Kendricks (USA) | 5.95m =SB |
| 🥉 | Emmanouil Karalis (GRE) | 5.90m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.25m
World Indoor Championships: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.05m
Wanda Diamond League: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.11m
European Championships: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.10m
African Championships: Kyle Rademeyer (RSA) 5.20m
Oceanian Championships: Dalton Di Medio (AUS) 5.25m
World U20 Championships: Hendrik Muller (GER) 5.45m
Season snapshot
- Once again, Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis dominated the pole vault in a way few competitors have ever controlled an event in history. In 2024, Duplantis broke his own world record three times, beginning with a 6.24m clearance at April’s Xiamen Wanda Diamond League meeting.
- In the Paris Olympics final, with the rest of the competition concluded on 5 August, Duplantis held the attention rapt inside a sold-out Stade de France as he won the gold medal with a record 6.25m.
- The Swedish star had one record left in his season. Three weeks after winning his second consecutive Olympic gold medal, Duplantis cleared 6.26m in Chorzow — the 10th time he has broken the world record in his career. In athletics history only Sergey Bubka (17 times outdoor between 1984-1994) has rewritten pole vault’s record book more frequently.
- Unexpectedly at the Paris Olympics, Christopher Nilsen of the United States — the silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics — failed to qualify for the final. A US athlete nonetheless made the podium: the silver earned by Sam Kendricks added to the bronze he earned at the Rio Olympics eight years earlier, and when he cleared 6.01m in Berlin on 1 September, it was his highest clearance in four years.
- Emmanouil Karalis improved his PB by 14 cm in 2024 and became Greece’s first male pole vaulter to claim a medal in the Olympics in 68 years. Weeks later, he broke his own Greek record in Silesia, clearing 6.00m. With Duplantis clearing his world record of 6.26m and Kendricks also soaring over 6.00m, it was the first time that three men had cleared six metres in one competition.
Women’s long jump
Season top list
| 7.22m | Malaika Mihambo (GER) | Rome | 12 June |
| 7.18i | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | Albuquerque | 16 February |
| 6.98m | Jasmine Moore (USA) | Eugene | 29 June |
| 6.97m | Plamena Mitkova (BUL) | Veliko Tarnovo | 30 June |
| 6.94m | Larissa Iapichino (ITA) | Rome | 12 June |
| 6.94m | Alina Rotaru-Kottmann (ROU) | Piraeus | 23 June |
| 6.94m | Tionna Tobias (USA) | Gainesville | 19 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | 1438 |
| 2 | Malaika Mihambo (GER) | 1394 |
| 3 | Larissa Iapichino (ITA) | 1380 |
| 4 | Jasmine Moore (USA) | 1346 |
| 5 | Monae’ Nichols (USA) | 1341 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | 7.10m |
| 🥈 | Malaika Mihambo (GER) | 6.98m |
| 🥉 | Jasmine Moore (USA) | 6.96m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) 7.10m
World Indoor Championships: Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) 7.07m
Wanda Diamond League: Larissa Iapichino (ITA) 6.80m
European Championships: Malaika Mihambo (GER) 7.22m
African Championships: Ese Brume (NGR) 6.73m
Oceanian Championships: Samantha Dale (AUS) 6.47m
World U20 Championships: Delta Amidzovski (AUS) 6.58m
Season snapshot
- When Germany’s Malaika Mihambo won the European Championships in June, her jump of 7.22m was her farthest since winning the 2019 world title in Doha. Mihambo, the Tokyo Olympic champion, could not retain her Olympic gold medal in Paris, however, while USA’s Tara Davis-Woodhall continued a season that saw her develop into the most consistent competitor, starting indoors.
- Davis-Woodhall jumped her season’s best of 7.18m to win the US indoor title in February, and won the world indoor title as an encore. She would end up owning six of the eight farthest jumps in the world in 2024. Her 7.10m leap that won her gold in Paris was only her fourth-best on the season, a testament to her steadiness.
Tara Davis-Woodhall soars to the world indoor long jump title in Glasgow (© Getty Images)
- Davis-Woodhall and Mihambo were the only women to jump farther than seven metres in 2024. Jasmine Moore of the US was next closest, jumping 6.98m to win the US Olympic trials.
- Moore went on to get bronze in Paris, completing an impressive double as she added that medal to the bronze she claimed in the triple jump five days prior.
Men’s long jump
Season top list
| 8.65m | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | Rome | 8 June |
| 8.41m | Simon Ehammer (SUI) | Rome | 7 June |
| 8.40i | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | Boston | 8 March |
| 8.38m | Mattia Furlani (ITA) | Rome | 8 June |
| 8.38m | Carey McLeod (JAM) | Kingston | 29 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | 1439 |
| 2 | Simon Ehammer (SUI) | 1361 |
| 3 | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | 1360 |
| 4 | Mattia Furlani (ITA) | 1360 |
| 5 | Carey McLeod (JAM) | 1331 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | 8.48m |
| 🥈 | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | 8.36m |
| 🥉 | Mattia Furlani (ITA) | 8.34m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) 8.48m
World Indoor Championships: Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) 8.22m
Wanda Diamond League: Tajay Gayle (JAM) 8.28m
European Championships: Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) 8.65m
African Championships: Cheswill Johnson (RSA) 7.78m
Oceanian Championships: Liam Adcock (AUS) 8.05m
World U20 Championships: Roko Farkas (CRO) 8.17m
Season snapshot
- Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou joined eventual winner Mondo Duplantis as a finalist for field event athlete of the year after a dominant campaign that began in June’s European Championships. Tentoglu’s winning mark of 8.65m was a PB and tied him as the 14th-best performer of all time. It was also the farthest jump in the world since Tajay Gayle’s 8.69m in 2019.
- Since earning silver at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Tentoglou has won a world outdoor gold in 2023 in Budapest, the world indoor title in Glasgow in March, and followed it with his Paris Olympic gold medal. He became the first man to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the event since Carl Lewis won four from 1984-1996. Tentoglou’s winning jump of 8.48m in Paris was also the longest to win at an Olympics since 2004.
World indoor long jump medallists Mattia Furlani, Miltiadis Tentoglou and Carey McLeod in Glasgow (© Getty Images)
- Wayne Pinnock earned Jamaica’s first Olympic medal in the long jump since James Beckford in 1996.
- Italy’s Mattia Furlani, meanwhile, became the first Italian man to gain a medal in the event since Giovanni Evangelisti in 1984. The 19-year-old – who got world indoor silver on countback behind Tentoglou as they both jumped 8.22m – was later named men’s Rising Star at the World Athletics Awards.
- June’s European Championships produced the deepest competition of the season, with the marks there by Tentoglu, Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer and Furlani ranking first, third and fifth in the 2024 top list.
Women’s triple jump
Season top list
| 15.02m | Thea LaFond (DMA) | Paris | 3 August |
| 14.96m | Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) | Monaco | 12 July |
| 14.87m | Shanieka Ricketts (JAM) | Paris | 3 August |
| 14.85m | Viyaleta Skvartsova (BLR) | Sochi | 22 May |
| 14.85m | Ana Peleteiro-Compaore (ESP) | Rome | 9 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Thea LaFond (DMA) | 1417 |
| 2 | Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) | 1401 |
| 3 | Shanieka Ricketts (JAM) | 1384 |
| 4 | Ana Peleteiro-Compaore (ESP) | 1327 |
| 5 | Jasmine Moore (USA) | 1303 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Thea LaFond (DMA) | 15.02m NR |
| 🥈 | Shanieka Ricketts (JAM) | 14.87m SB |
| 🥉 | Jasmine Moore (USA) | 14.67m SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Thea LaFond (DMA) 15.02m
World Indoor Championships: Thea LaFond (DMA) 15.01m
Wanda Diamond League: Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) 14.37m
European Championships: Ana Peleteiro-Compaore (ESP) 14.85m
African Championships: Saly Sarr (SEN) 14.06m
Oceanian Championships: Desleigh Owusu (AUS) 13.45m
World U20 Championships: Sharifa Davronova (UZB) 13.75m
Season snapshot
- It wasn’t only that Thea LaFond won her first Olympic medal in Paris. It was that her gold in the women’s triple jump was the first Olympic medal won by her island country of Dominica in any sport.
Thea LaFond in the triple jump at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica and Jasmine Moore of the United States each earned their country’s first Olympic medal in the event, which has been contested at the Olympics since 1996.
- LaFond’s winning jump of 15.02m was the farthest in the world in 2024, and she was also the only woman to surpass 15 metres, with Leyanis Perez Hernandez closest after her leap of 14.96 from July in Monaco. Perez Hernandez had a strong season that included silver behind LaFond at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, along with the overall Wanda Diamond League title – but she finished a surprising fifth in the Olympic final.
- Venezuelan world record-holder Yulimar Rojas did not compete in the Olympics because of an achilles injury she announced in April.
Men’s triple jump
Season top list
| 18.18m | Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) | Rome | 11 June |
| 18.04m | Pedro Pichardo (POR) | Rome | 11 June |
| 17.75m | Jaydon Hibbert (JAM) | Kingston | 1 June |
| 17.64m | Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) | Paris | 9 August |
| 17.57m | Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) | Hengelo | 7 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Pedro Pichardo (POR) | 1438 |
| 2 | Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) | 1416 |
| 3 | Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) | 1400 |
| 4 | Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) | 1377 |
| 5 | Max Hess (GER) | 1346 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) | 17.86m |
| 🥈 | Pedro Pichardo (POR) | 17.84m |
| 🥉 | Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) | 17.64m SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) 17.86m
World Indoor Championships: Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) 17.53m
Wanda Diamond League: Pedro Pichardo (POR) 17.33m
European Championships: Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) 18.18m
African Championships: Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) 17.18m
Oceanian Championships: Aiden Hinson (AUS) 16.32m
World U20 Championships: Ethan Olivier (NZL) 17.01m
Season snapshot
- In the history of the triple jump, there have only been 17 marks over 18 metres – and 2024 produced two of them, both on the same day. Spain’s Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (18.18m, third all time) and Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo (18.04m, tied for 13th all time) both put on a spectacular show at the European Championships in Rome on 11 June. On his fourth attempt Diaz Fortun jumped what was a personal best of 17.96m but still trailed Pichardo. Diaz Fortun then surpassed him with a leap that stands only 11 cm short of Jonathan Edwards’ world record from 1995. The competition was reminiscent of Pichardo’s famed 2015 showdown with Christian Taylor in which both men also surpassed 18 metres.
Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun, triple jump winner at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- Two months after Rome, Diaz Fortun and Pichardo, both Cuban-born, reignited their showdown at the Paris Olympics, where Diaz Fortun again won gold – his first Olympic medal – and silver for Pichardo, who had earned gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Before Diaz Fortun and Pichardo took centre stage, it appeared as though Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso, the world indoor gold medallist in Glasgow (17.53m), and Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert might steal the spotlight. Hibbert jumped 17.75m on 1 June in Kingston to set a world lead and establish the second-farthest U20 mark of all time (Hibbert now owns the nine farthest U20 jumps in history). Hibbert went on to earn fourth at the Paris Olympics after his second jump of 17.61m. That was not enough to leap Andy Diaz Hernandez in the standings with his bronze-medal jump of 17.64m.
- Pichardo would go on to win the Wanda Diamond League title.
Andrew Greif for World Athletics
