A year later, in the early morning of Tuesday 16 August 2016 in the Olympic Stadium jumping pit in Rio, Taylor retained his triple jump title. And he needed only one attempt – his very first one. Taylor was the seventh athlete to step up in the final, and his opening jump was better than the one that had secured him the gold medal at the London 2012 Games – 17.86m, a season’s best. It was a distance that none of his opponents could match, and Taylor underlined his domination with two other leaps measuring 17.77m. Claye’s first jump of the final was also his best – his leap of 17.76m saw him take silver. The first jump by China’s Bin Dong, meanwhile, was the only one of his six attempts to receive the white flag, but it was enough to earn him the bronze medal (17.58m).
