Terp Leaps to Olympic Gold for Dominica
Triple Jumper Is First Maryland Athletics Alum to Win Gold Since 1988
Thea LaFond ’15 rings the bell in victory after winning gold in the triple jump at Stade de France on Saturday, the first Olympic medal for her home country of Dominica. After the Games in Paris, the bell will hang in the rebuilt Notre Dame Cathedral.
Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics
Former University of Maryland track and field star Thea LaFond ’15 added Olympic champion to her resume on Saturday, taking gold in the triple jump at Paris’ Stade de France. The victory represented the first Olympic medal for the Caribbean island nation of Dominica.
She posted a mark of 15.02 meters (49 feet 3 ¼ inches), a new national record and a world best this year, in the finals to become the first Maryland track and field alum to medal in the 2024 Olympics. Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts and American Jasmine Moore took silver and bronze, respectively.
“It’s an understatement to say it’s a really big deal,” LaFond said in The Washington Post. “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.”
LaFond, who also competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2021 Games in Tokyo, is the 10th gold medalist in UMD history and the first Terp student-athlete to win gold since women’s basketball legend Vicky Bullett in 1988.
[15 Terps Say ‘Bonjour’ to Summer Olympics, Paralympics]
The Silver Spring, Md., native moved to the state at age 7. She set the highest women’s triple jump score in UMD history (44-02.75), which still stands today, and holds the second-best all-time finish in the indoor triple jump and indoor 60-meter hurdles, the third-best indoor high jump mark, and the fourth-best indoor long jump mark.
She earned multiple All-American honors at Maryland, including placing in the top 10 in both the women's high jump and triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2013. In the indoor season that year, she was named the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Field Athlete of the Year. During her senior season in 2015, she was named the Big Ten's Field Athlete of the Year.
LaFond’s professional career highlights include earning silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze in 2018. In March, she won the triple jump title at the 2024 World Indoor Championships, posting a then-national record of 15.01 meters to become Dominica’s first world champion.
LaFond serves as a special education and fitness and health substitute teacher at John F. Kennedy High School, her alma mater, to support her athletic career. She is also an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Northwest High School.
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