From New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University to the Olympic Games, Salif Mane Stuns The Triple Jump World

For a kid that grew up in the Bronx, New York, having the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Fourth of July New York Yankees baseball game at Yankee Stadium was like a dream come true.

Salif Mane was bestowed the honor just three days after he emphatically won the men’s triple jump at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field with an astonishing leap of 17.52m/57-5 ¾. It was a huge personal best for the 22-year-old athlete and recent graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey.

“On my last jump, I just gave it my all and it was big,” Mane tells Team USA.

Regarding stepping into the spotlight at Yankee Stadium, Mane said: “I wasn’t even nervous – growing up as a New York Yankees fan, it felt amazing.”

Having already clinched victory with a first-round Olympic qualifying mark of 17.28m/56-8 ½ in Eugene, Oregon, the pressure was off on Mane’s sixth and final round attempt. The rising star noted that he was inspired by two-time Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor and two-time Olympic silver medalist Will Claye, two legends that he had just defeated.

“Christian and Will, and all the big guys were like ‘you’ve already got this, just go for it’ and that also helped me jump 17-5,” Mane said.

“It was amazing to go against these guys that I’ve always looked up to – guys that I’ve screen recorded their jumps and took to practice to mimic them,” Mane said about Taylor, 34, and Claye, 33. “They were basically the blueprints to my success – for them to actually see me do what I did felt awesome.”

Also nearby was Mane’s longtime trusted coach Leroy “Sol” Solomon, a New York area track and field legend.

“Besides all the hard work he puts in and never really complains, I see that he has the determination of a champion that refuses to lose,” Solomon says, of his star pupil.

Mane’s miraculous mark at Olympic Trials came just three weeks after he soared to his first NCAA Division I title on the exact same Hayward Field triple jump runway.

“I’ve literally held him back this season because I didn’t want him to get burnt out – I knew his goal was to make it to Paris and the NCAA’s were the first time I allowed him to take his full approach,” Solomon informs, about Mane’s more recent 18-step run before take-off. “I knew he was going to go 17-meters if he put the timing together.”

“Prior to NCAA’s, I didn’t think I could actually jump 17 (meters) – I was jumping horribly,” Mane noted. “I was all over the place, but then 17.14m popped up. It was the confidence I needed going into Olympic Trials.”

With his high-flying, three-phases of jumping triumph in Eugene, Oregon – the second victory in three weeks – Mane punched a ticket to his first Olympic Games.

Mane became the first NCAA individual outdoor champion at Fairleigh Dickinson University since 1981. The student-athlete from New York City recently graduated from the 6,900-student northern New Jersey private institution with a degree in civil engineering.

As a seven-time All-American at the Northeast Conference school, Mane is the most decorated athlete in FDU’s sporting history.

“Being at FDU has been amazing for me – I’ve done a lot here and they’ve done a lot for me, so it’s been a beautiful journey,” Mane says, about time spent on and around campus. “I love it here – I’ve made a second home.”

Adding to the impressiveness of Mane’s recent accomplishments is that FDU lacks a suitable outdoor track. Mane and coach Solomon have been creative with training, bouncing around other local facilities. Often, the future Olympian has practiced at nearby Teaneck High School.

“It is difficult because as a collegian it’s hard to train with high schoolers,” Mane says, no longer just a collegian, but now also an Olympian. “We also use public tracks, but most of the times we just stay indoors.”

He is referring to FDU’s top-notch indoor track and jumping pits, but still, the lack of an adequate outdoor facility adds to Mane’s incredible story. The fact that he has been able to beat fellow competitors from juggernaut programs like Florida, Miami and Oklahoma is stunning.

“It’s been tough – but hey, that’s how we grew up in the Bronx,” says coach Solomon, about the lack of athletic facilities in the New York City Borough. “We kind of know how to make due and get the best out of what we have.”

It has been an emotional few weeks for Mane as he remains inspired and has dedicated his life-changing performances to his late father, Thierno, who died from COVID-19 in 2020.

In Paris, as he did at trials, Mane will listen and relisten to encouraging voicemails sent by his father in December 2019, a few months before he passed away.

“He was a hard-working man and did everything for me, so to be able to do this in his name is awesome and kind of bittersweet,” Mane says. “It means a lot that I’ve been able to achieve something that he always believed I could do.

“We ran a lot together and he was always adamant that we do sports no matter what,” he said.

Mane – whose parents are from Senegal and emigrated to the United States in the late 90’s – will have relatives, that he has yet to meet, cheering for him in the French capital.

“They are my mom’s siblings and they’ll be coming to watch me compete,” he informs.

Salif’s last name ‘Mane’ means royalty in Senegalese

Mane will step onto the triple jump runway at Le Stade de France in Paris on Aug 7 & 9, along with teammate Russell Robinson, a similarly talented 22-year-old, who was runner-up to him at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Rounding out the U.S. squad is 32-year-old veteran Donald Scott, a 2020 Olympian and six-time indoor and outdoor national champion.

Mane and Robinson are prepared to uphold the outstanding legacy of American triple jumping.

“Russell and I know that we’re next up in the triple jump – I feel like we’ve connected to push each other to be better,” Mane says of Robinson, who competed for the University of Miami. “I think we’re ready to take the next step to being great triple jumpers, just like Christian and Will.”

Mane will be making his first trip overseas on July 24 and plans to represent Team USA at the opening ceremony. The first-time Olympian says he will embrace the entire Olympic experience.

“This is an opportunity maybe once every four years and I don’t know if I’ll ever be back at the Olympics, so this is something that I’ll cherish,” Mane said.