Triple Jump, Men

The hop, step and jump was the first final contested at the 1896 Olympic Games. The competition occurred on 6 April 1896. The honor of being the first Modern Olympic Champion thus went to the winner of this event, James B. Connolly of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the Suffolk Athletic Club, and briefly, Harvard University.

Connolly led a field of seven competitors, with France’s Alexandre Tuffèri finishing second, and Greece’s Ioannis Persakis third. Tuffèri was the first jumper and Connolly the last. There were no precise rules at the style required. The styles of the medalists were described in The Field as follows: Connolly took two hops on his right foot and then a jump; Tuffèri performed a hop, step and a jump in the standard English method; and Persakis used two steps and a jump. Persakis’ method was apparently the common one used in Greece where the event was popular and often held at various village festivals.