Françoise Mbango Etone Explained

Françoise Mbango Etone (born 14 April 1976 in Yaoundé) is a Cameroonian-born female track and field athlete. She has competed internationally for France since 2010.^[1] While competing for Cameroon, Etone was a 2-time Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She held the Olympic record for triple jump which she set with a distance of 15.39 m at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The 15.39 m is the third longest women's triple jump in history under any conditions.^[2] Only 25 women have ever jumped 15 metres, Etone jumped beyond 15 metres on 7 of her last 11 attempts in the Olympic final alone.

Etone was also a talented long jumper who finished second at the African Championships in 1999. Etone was the first female athlete representing Cameroon to win medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympic Games. She has been a scholarship holder with the Olympic Solidarity program since November 2002.

During the 2005–06 academic year, she lived in New York City on a scholarship to attend St. John's University in Queens, New York. The scholarship was made possible through the collaboration of the American electricity company AES Sonel along with US Ambassador to Cameroon, Niels Marquardt. She selected St. John's University for study (along with her younger sister, Berthe) because of the school's support of cultural programs in Cameroon.

Competition record

Representing
1996	African Championships	Yaoundé, Cameroon	3rd	Triple jump	12.51 m
1998	African Championships	Dakar, Senegal	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	13.80 m
	Commonwealth Games	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	10th	Long jump	6.11 m
			bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	13.95 m
1999	World Championships	Seville, Spain	13th (q)	Triple jump	14.12 m
	All-Africa Games	Johannesburg, South Africa	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Long jump	6.55 m
			bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	14.70 m
2000	African Championships	Algiers, Algeria	3rd	4 × 100 m relay	46.97
			bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	13.87 m
	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	24th (h)	4 × 100 m relay	45.82
			10th	Triple jump	13.53 m
2001	Jeux de la Francophonie	Ottawa, Canada	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Long jump	6.37 m
			bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	14.56 m
	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	14.60 m
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, United Kingdom	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	14.82 m
	African Championships	Radès, Tunisia	bgcolor=gold	1st	Long jump	6.68 m (w)
			bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	14.95 m
2003	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	14.88 m
	World Championships	Paris, France	bgcolor=silver	2nd	Triple jump	15.05 m
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	6th	Triple jump	14.62 m
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	15.30 m
2008	African Championships	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	14.76 m
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	bgcolor=gold	1st	Triple jump	15.39 m
Representing
2012	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	8th	Triple jump	14.19 m

Notes and References

1. News: Transfers of Allegiance . IAAF . 19 November 2010 . 21 November 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100328025049/http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/transfer/index.html . 28 March 2010 .
2. Web site: Women's triple jump.