The men's triple jump event at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, had an entry list of 25 competitors, with two qualifying groups (25 jumpers) before the final (12) took place on Friday July 30, 1976. The top twelve and ties, and all those reaching 16.30 metres advanced to the final. The qualification round was held in Thursday July 29, 1976. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Viktor Saneyev Viktor Danilovich Saneyev (russian: Виктор Данилович Санеев; ka, ვიქტორ სანეევი, Vikt’or Saneevi; 3 October 1945 – 3 January 2022) was a Georgian triple jumper who competed internationally for ...

of the Soviet Union, the first man to win three gold medals in the triple jump. He matched

Vilho Tuulos Vilho "Ville" Immanuel Tuulos (26 March 1895 – 2 September 1967) was a Finland, Finnish triple jumper and long jumper. He won a gold medal in the Athletics at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump, triple jump at the 1920 Summer Olym ...

of Finland in 1920 through 1928 as the only men to have three medals of any color in the event (Tuulos had one gold, two bronze). It was the seventh consecutive Games that the Soviet Union had reached the podium, and third consecutive gold medal for the Soviets, in the event.

James Butts James Aaron Butts (born May 9, 1950) is a retired American triple jumper. He won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics and a bronze at the 1979 Pan American Games. He was inducted into the UCLA Bruins#UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, UCLA Athletics H ...

's silver put the United States on the men's triple jump podium for the first time since 1928. Brazil won a triple jump medal for the third consecutive Games with João Carlos de Oliveira's bronze.

Summary

Three world record holders came to compete; João Carlos de Oliveira was the current record holder at the

1975 Pan American Games The 1975 Pan American Games were held in Mexico City, Mexico, from October 12 to October 26, 1975, exactly twenty years after the second Pan American Games were held there. It was the third major sporting event held in the Mexican capital in se ...

; two time defending champion

and

Pedro Pérez Pedro Damián Pérez Dueñas (; February 23, 1952 – July 18, 2018) was a Cuban triple jumper, who set the world record in the men's triple jump event on August 5, 1971, jumping 17.40 metres, while still a 19-year-old Junior athlete, in the fin ...

who had taken Saneyev's record and held it for a year until Saneyev took it back. All but two finalists hit the 16.30 automatic qualifier, de Oliveira the leader in that round. In the final, Pérez took the early lead with a 16.81 in the first round,

was in second at 16.69, while Saneyev and de Oliveira fouled. In the second round, Saneyev landed a 16.71 but was only third as Butts improved to 16.76. The order switched in the third round when Saneyev jumped 17.06 and de Oliveira went 16.85 to take over the top two spots. In the fourth round, Butts leaped into the lead with 17.18. Saneyev jumped the winner in the fifth round. On his final attempt, de Oliveira improved to 16.90, but couldn't improve enough to change his medal from bronze. Saneyev became the third man to win the same event three times in a row, after

John Flanagan John Flanagan or Jack Flanagan may refer to: Sportspeople * Jack Flanagan (footballer) (1902–1989), English footballer * John Flanagan (hammer thrower) (1868–1938), Irish-American three-time Olympic champion in athletics * John Flanagan (Limeri ...

in the

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consist ...

and

Al Oerter Alfred Oerter Jr. (September 19, 1936 – October 1, 2007) was an American athlete and a four-time Olympic Champion in the discus throw. He was the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Ga ...

in the discus.

Background

This was the 18th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Half of the finalists from the 1972 Games returned: two-time gold medalist

of the Soviet Union, bronze medalist (and 1968 silver medalist) Nelson Prudêncio of Brazil, fourth-place finisher Carol Corbu of Romania, seventh-place finisher Michał Joachimowski of Poland, tenth-place finisher

Bernard Lamitié Bernard Lamitié (born 27 June 1946 in Paris) is a retired French triple jump 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 tw ...

of France, and twelfth-place finisher

Toshiaki Inoue was a Japanese triple jumper who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics and in the 1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 � ...

of Japan. Saneyev was the favorite to win a third gold, with world record holder João Carlos de Oliveira of Brazil his most significant challenger. Antigua and Barbuda made its first appearance in the event. The United States competed for the 18th time, having competed at each of the Games so far.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936. In the qualifying round, each jumper received three attempts to reach the qualifying distance of 16.30 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. In the final round, each athlete had three jumps; the top eight received an additional three jumps, with the best of the six to count.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 73.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. No new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern Daylight Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small p ...

( UTC-4)

Results

Qualifying

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics - Men's triple jump T Triple jump at the Olympics Men's events at the 1976 Summer Olympics