Thea LaFond (Dominica) made history by becoming the first Dominican to win a medal at a global athletics competition. She won the gold medal in the triple jump at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland with a first-round jump of 15.01 meters.
The 29-year-old LaFond is a graduate of John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring. She has also been a substitute teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools while representing Dominica. After her time at Kennedy, she continued her athletic and educational career at the University of Maryland in College Park where she set the highest ever women’s triple jump score in school history (44-02.75), a record that still stands today.
She became the first Dominican athlete to ever win a medal for her country in the competition, earning a bronze medal in the Triple Jump at the 2018 Commonwealth games.