Bronze, silver, now gold – and a Ph.D. (in electrical engineering!), too

First came the bronze medals for Hugues Fabrice Zango, a triple jumper from Burkina Faso, at the 2019 athletics world championships in Doha (QAT) and then the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

Then came a silver, at the 2022 world championships in Eugene (USA).

Then, at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, the final upgrade: gold, a jump of 17.64 meters on his fifth attempt, his nation’s first-ever gold medal at the championships.

“It’s happiness more than you can imagine,” he said.

All the more so because earlier in 2023 Zango, who is something of the 21st century definition of a Renaissance man, completed his doctoral dissertation in electrical engineering at the Université de Reims, in northern France, where he has been based the past several years. He is due in the fall to defend the dissertation. And expects there another, if you will, gold medal.

The foundation for all of this – all of it – is an Olympic Solidarity scholarship, he made plain. The scholarship has allowed him to do two things simultaneously between the Tokyo and Olympic Games: keep his basic needs met while pursuing sponsor opportunities.

“I’m really free, especially in my head,” he said.

He elaborated: “The real support of the scholarship is taking my mind and making it relax. It helps me know I don’t have to be stressed to prepare.”

At a championship meet, everyone has physical gifts. What makes a champion, ultimately, is what’s going on mentally. That is what, finally, got Fabrice Zango his gold.

In the months after Eugene, he and his coach, France’s former triple jump great Teddy Tamgho, studied – relentlessly – the jump patterns of Fabrice Zango’s rivals.

“Never have I seen a guy be so driven,” Tamgho said.

So, they knew, for instance, that Cubans Lazaro Martinez and Cristian Napoles almost always had their best jumps in the earlier rounds – four or before. Martinez went 17.41 in Round One, Napoles 17.40 in Round Four.

Before Round Five, Tamgho said to Fabrice Zango, relax, you’ve got this. You’re prepared. You don’t need to be stressed.

“Just enjoy,” Tamgho said. “Just one jump is enough to enjoy your goal.”

“If I jump 17.6, I am the champ,” Fabrice Zango said. “Just jump 17.6. Just relax.”

Just like that – 17.64.

“I told him, ‘I knew you could win this championship one day,’” Tamgho said. “And now it’s like a gift – a gift for all these years, these years of working, the push, of pushing.”

Now, on the horizon, Paris 2024. And, of course, before, the final step in a doctoral degree – the research, he said, ought to have particular use in mining and other industries.

“This is something I was dreaming of since the start of my Ph.D.,” Fabrice Zango said. “Is it possible to combine the two projects? Is it possible to finally be a world champion? Getting medals, I did it. But being a world champion and a doctor – it’s something crazy.”