ATLANTA — Two-time Olympic triple-jump champion Christian Taylor underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles and will miss the Tokyo Olympics.
The Fayetteville native was injured during a recent meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic. He had surgery in Germany.
The 30-year-old Taylor captured gold at the 2012 London Games and four years later in Rio. He’s also earned four gold medals at world championships, including three in a row.
Taylor has the second-longest leap all time in an event where an athlete attempts to soar as far as possible by performing a hop, step, and a jump from a running start.
His fiancée, Austrian hurdler Beate Schrott, wrote on Instagram: "I don’t have words for this situation. Christian ruptured his Achilles during the competition in Ostrava yesterday. It’s heartbreaking. Really."
She added, "I know he’ll get through this. He will fight his way back," and said the surgery went well.
"Doctors and therapists are taking very good care of him," Schrott said.
In an interview last summer, Taylor told 11Alive he was looking forward to Tokyo, and said the interruption of the Olympics and challenges presented by the COVID-10 pandemic "gives me something greater to compete for, it’s no longer how far I can jump or energy I can send."
When Atlanta helped kick of the Olympic season last year, before the pandemic had set in with the Marathon Trials on Feb. 29, Taylor said he felt the momentum.
“It got things stirring in me, and it got me ready to compete,” he said, recalling how he watched the Americans hold the flag at the finish line and felt the energy. “It made me excited for my chance to represent.”