Who holds the world record for the triple jump?

The world record for the triple jump, which stands at 18.29 metres, or exactly 60 feet, was set by Englishman Jonathan Edwards at the World Athletics Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden on August 7, 1995. Indeed, Edwards had already broken the world record twice before that year, jumping 17.98 metres – a centimetre further than the existing record, set by Willie Banks in 1985 – in Salamanca, Spain on July 18 and improving his own record by 18 centimetres, or 7 inches, when jumping 18.16 metres in the first round in Gothenburg.

Edwards retired from professional athletics in 2003 but, while American Kenny Harrison jumped 18.09 metres at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA on July 27, 1996, it was not until the World Athletics Championship in Beijing, China on August 27, 2015, that anyone really came with hailing distance of Edwards’ record. On that occasion, another American, Christian Taylor, was involved in a protracted battle with Cuban Pedro Pablo Pichardo before producing a final jump of 18.21 metres. That effort remains the closest anyone has come to beating the world record in two-and-a-half decades, although yet another American, Will Haye produced the third-best jump in history, 18.14 metres, in Long Beach, California, USA on June 29, 2019. Nevertheless, Edwards remains the first and, so far, only man to jump 60 feet and his world record has acquired an almost ‘mythical’ quality.