Thea Lafond - Triple Jump Champion on Winning Dominica's First Olympic Medal: 'It's a really big deal'

Thea LaFond made headlines as the sole representative of Dominica at the World Indoor Championships, where she won a gold medal in the triple jump earlier this year. Fast forward to the Paris Olympics, and LaFond has done it again, securing gold as the only woman from her country competing. This victory is not just a personal achievement but a historic milestone, marking the first Olympic medal for Dominica.

“It’s an understatement to say it’s a really big deal,” LaFond expressed after her triumph at the Stade de France. “Sometimes you wonder if being from a small country means that you have less accessibility to resources... But we’ve been really big on prioritizing quality and just executing it.”

Although LaFond left Dominica for the United States at the age of five and now resides in Maryland, she remains a proud ambassador for her homeland. “My country’s name is Dominica (dah-min-EE-ka). We’re not the Dominican Republic, so it’s pronounced differently,” LaFond clarified. “We have roughly 70,000 people. Not 7 million. Not 70 million. Seventy thousand. And it is a gorgeous, gorgeous gem in the Caribbean near Martinique and Guadeloupe. Our neighbors also include St. Lucia, Barbados, and, further south, Trinidad and Tobago. Our primary language is English. And now they have a gold medal.”

The women’s triple jump at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, held on August 3rd at the Stade de France, witnessed a new champion. Thea LaFond clinched the Olympic gold with a national record jump of 15.02m. Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts earned the silver with a season’s best of 14.87m, while Team USA’s Jasmine Moore took bronze, also with a season’s best of 14.67m.