Miltiadis Tentoglou makes history with fourth straight long jump gold medal
Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou won his fourth consecutive European Championship gold medal with an 8.44-meter jump in Birmingham, becoming the first male athlete to achieve this feat.
Miltiadis Tentoglou continues to write his own chapter in the history of Greek and world athletics. With a mark of 8.44 meters on his fourth attempt, he claimed the gold medal in the long jump at the European Championships, completing a unique streak of four consecutive titles.
According to Newsbomb, Tentoglou became the first Greek athlete to reach such an achievement. He started in Berlin in 2018, continued in Munich in 2022, followed by Rome in 2024, and now Birmingham in 2026. In doing so, he became the first in the competition’s history, after 94 years, to collect four gold medals in the long jump. Until now, he had shared the record with Soviet athlete Ivan Ter-Ovanesyan, who had won three (1958, 1962, 1969). At the same time, the Greek champion became the 27th athlete in history to reach four gold medals at European Championships.
Until the fourth attempt, Swiss competitor Ehammer was leading by two centimeters, with a jump of 8.29 meters. Tentoglou, however, closed the gap and took the lead decisively.
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Spontaneous moment after the victory
After his success, in his statements to ERT, Tentoglou once again showed his character. He said that somewhere he had forgotten the gold medal before the ceremony and spontaneously blurted out the national “swear word.” He immediately apologized when he realized it and ran to find it, because the ceremony was about to follow.
The unconventional champion remained far from feuds and conventionalities, showing that he remains the same person the public knows.
The connection with Heike Drechsler
With his fourth straight gold, Tentoglou became only the second athlete in long jump history to win four consecutive European titles. The first and until recently only one was German Heike Drechsler, who had taken gold in 1986, 1990, 1994, and 1998.
In 2018, in Berlin, a few hours after his first major success, the then 20-year-old Tentoglou met Drechsler. She was at the competition as a volunteer and was helping with the running of the final. His coach, Giorgos Pomaski, pointed her out to him. The young Greek went over to her and hugged her.
Eight years have passed since then. Four European Championships, four golds, and not a single defeat in a long jump final along that journey. In Birmingham 2026, Tentoglou wrote the chapter that places him alongside the great German.
