Triple jump

Athletics Triple jump
Former world record holder Willie Banks during the 1988 Summer Olympics Seoul, South Korea.
Men's records
World	Jonathan Edwards 18.29 m (60 ft 0 in) (1995)
Olympic	Kenny Harrison 18.09 m (59 ft 4 in) (1996)
Women's records
World	Inessa Kravets 15.50 m (50 ft 10 in) (1995)
Olympic	Françoise Mbango 15.39 m (50 ft 5 3⁄4 in) (2008)

The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps." The competitor runs down the track and performs a hop, a bound and then a jump into the sand pit. The triple jump was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympics event since the Games' inception in 1896.

According to IAAF rules, "the hop shall be made so that an athlete lands first on the same foot as that from which he has taken off; in the step he shall land on the other foot, from which, subsequently, the jump is performed."

The current male and female world record holders are Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain, with a jump of 18.29 m (60 ft 0 in), and Inessa Kravets of Ukraine, with a jump of 15.50 m (50 ft 10 in). Both records were set during 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg.

Historical sources on the ancient Olympic Games occasionally mention jumps of 15 meters or more. This led sports historians to conclude that these must have been a series of jumps, thus providing the basis for the triple jump. However, there is no evidence for the triple jump being included in the ancient Olympic Games, and it is possible that the recorded extraordinary distances are due to artistic license of the authors of victory poems, rather than attempts to report accurate results.

The triple jump was a part of the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens, although at the time it consisted of two hops on the same foot and then a jump. In fact, the first modern Olympic champion, James Connolly, was a triple jumper. Early Olympics also included the standing triple jump, although this has since been removed from the Olympic program and is rarely performed in competition today. The women's triple jump was introduced into the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.