Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics - Men's triple jump

The final of the Men's Triple Jump event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia was held on July 27, 1996. There were a total of 43 participating athletes, with two qualifying groups. The top twelve and ties, and all those reaching 17.00 metres advanced to the final. The qualification round was held on July 26, 1996.

Coming into the competition, Jonathan Edwards was the only man to have jumped 18 metres, from his remarkable back to back world records at the world championships a year earlier and backing it up with another 18 metre jump in London a few weeks later. At age 30, he was the youngest of the major contenders; defending champion Mike Conley| was already 33, and former world champion Kenny Harrison was 31 and coming back from a serious knee injury. Edwards did not look that good in qualifying, unable to make the automatic qualifying mark in two attempts, while Harrison, Conley, Yoelbi Quesada, Brian Wellman and Galin Georgiev did.

In the final, on his first attempt Edwards looked a lot better, his first attempt landing well past the 18 metre mark and approaching his world record. Exiting the pit, he saw the red flag. A few jumpers later, Harrison became the second best jumper in history with a 17.99, adding more than a foot to the Olympic record. On his second attempt, Edwards put another jump deep into the pit and again saw the red flag. Now Edwards was faced with the prospect of getting nothing if he could not land his next jump in the top eight. His next time down the runway was much more careful and controlled, making a far less secure 17.13, which at the moment put him in third place, but was well within the ability of most of the jumpers who followed him in the order. Again following Edwards, Harrison jumped 18.09 m (59 ft 4 in) to become the second man over 18 metres. More impressive, it was into a -0.4 mp/s wind, which remains the longest jump ever into a negative wind. Edwards survived in third behind Quesada. On his next jump he was able to let loose and hit 17.88, an outstanding jump for anybody else in any other competition, but that left him 21 cm behind in second place. In the same round Quesada improved to 17.44 and Conley to 17.40. On his fifth attempt, Edwards soared to within inches of the world record marker, but got another red flag. Having earned the last jump, Harrison passed to rest for one final attempt, if needed. On his final attempt Edwards boomed another one close to the world record, but the red flag ended his evening with Harrison taking the gold. Neither Quesada or Conley improved their position in their last jumps, also fouling both attempts, so Quesada held on to bronze.

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