Alyona Chass

Happy birthday to Ukraine’s triple jumper Alyona Chass, who describes herself as a little Rocky and jumps like one.

Alyona’s biggest day came at the European Under-23 Championships in Bergen, where she fouled her first two attempts, walked back to the top of the runway with everything riding on the third, and jumped 13.75m — a personal best, and fourth place in a European final. Anyone who has ever competed in a horizontal jump knows exactly what those two fouls feel like and how few athletes produce their best jump from there. She sits inside the world’s top hundred triple jumpers.

Her 2026 has been busy and thoroughly international. She won the Czech-Ukraine-Poland Under-23 match at Opole in June with 13.55m, won at Jelenia Góra with 13.49m into a following wind, jumped 13.20m at the Copenhagen Athletics Games, and opened her year by winning the Christmas Starts meeting in Kyiv with 13.48m. Indoors she took her long jump to 5.80m at the national championships. Belgrade, Copenhagen, Opole, Jelenia Góra, Lviv, Kyiv — she has spent the season going wherever the competition is.

The triple jump is the most violent event in athletics on the body: three separate impacts, each one absorbing several times bodyweight, all inside about two seconds, and the whole thing collapses if the rhythm goes wrong by a fraction. It rewards exactly the temperament her own profile advertises. Two fouls at a European Championships and then the best jump of your life is not talent. That is the thing talent cannot supply.

З днем народження, Альоно! Многая літа — бажаємо міцного здоров’я, щастя і ще багатьох далеких стрибків. Вітаємо! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇺🇦