Little Known Facts: Origin of the The Triple Jump

Also known now as the "hop, step and jump", the triple jump appeared in the 1896 Athens Olympic Games as the 'hop, hop and jump', but its origins lie centuries earlier in the tiny Cotswold hamlet of Inn Breding on the Wold. As today's visitors will know, this picturesque settlement is bisected by the River Phoenix, which runs through the central green. When a spate washed away four of the stepping stones in the fifteenth century, villagers quickly became adept at hopping and jumping the resulting gaps (although strangers often came to grief!). The young men of the village would compete to see who could cross the fastest at the annual harvest fair, and from this the Triple Jump was born.