Kravets won the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, earning the gold, with a jump of 15.50 meters, thus setting a world record in women’s triple jump, a record which still stands to this day. Kravets left Bulgarian triple jumper Iva Prandzheva in second place with 15.18 meters for silver, and Russian athlete Anna Biryukova in third place with 15.08 meters for the bronze.
This iconic track and field moment in Gothenburg, in the women’s triple jump by Inessa Kravets, may be seen below.
On the following year, Kravets triumphed at the 1996 Olympic Games that were held in Atlanta, Georgia, where she won the gold medal in the triple jump with 15.33 meters. As a result, Kravets became the first woman to ever win the triple jump at an Olympic competition, in its inaugural year that the sport was added in the Olympic Games. Russian triple jumper Inna Lasovskaya took home the silver medal in Atlanta with 14.98 meters, and Czech triple jumper Sarka Kasparkova won the bronze with 14.98 meters.
In addition to her prowess in triple jump, Kravets excelled in the long jump, where she won accolades along the way. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, she took home the silver medal with a jump of 7.12 meters, leaving American jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee in third place with 7.07 meters. Germany’s Heike Drechsler won the gold medal in long jump at the Olympic Games in Barcelona with a distance of 7.14 meters.
