Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
The triple jump is an athletics (track and field) event, previously also known as "hop, skip and jump", whose various names describe the actions a competitor takes. The athlete runs down a runway until he reaches a designated mark, from which the jump is measured. The takeoff mark is a board, and in modern championships a strip of plasticine is attached to the board to record athletes overstepping the mark. The first landing has to be done with the takeoff foot. The next phase is a skip (or step), landing on the opposite foot, and is followed by the jump, into a sand-filled box, as in the long jump. A "foul" or missed jump occurs when a jumper oversteps the launch mark (most commonly), misses the pit entirely, or does not perform the attempt in the allotted amount of time (usually about one minute).
The triple jump has been included in the modern Olympic Games since its first celebration in 1896. In fact, the first modern Olympic Champion, James Connolly, was a triple jumper, however, the event at this time consisted of two hops and a jump. In 1996, a triple jump event for women was added to the Olympics, having already been included in both the Outdoor World Championships and World Indoor Championships.
NB: These are the top 10 performers of all time, not the top 10 performances. Other legal jumps by people on this list that would exceed the shortest jump on this list are noted below the table. For a more complete list of all-time performers, see www.alltime-athletics.com.
Edwards also has legal jumps of 18.16, 18.01, 18.00, 17.99, 17.98, 17.92, 17.88 and 17.86 m. As of 19 June 2006, he has six of the top 11 jumps of all time.
Harrison also has a legal jump of 17.93 m.
Conley also has a legal jump of 17.86 m.
Women
NB: Again, these are the top 10 performers of all time, not the top 10 performances. For a more complete list of all-time performers, see www.alltime-athletics.com.