Blade jumper Fleur Jong: "Come out on the track. Try, come get me"

The first time Fleur Jong saw people exercising on prosthetic legs, the initial thought that came into her mind was: “Now we’re talking”.

A competitive dancer in the past, Jong’s life changed a few days before her 17th birthday when she contracted a bacterial blood infection. The infection led to the amputation of her right leg below the knee, the amputation of a part of her left foot and the top parts of eight fingers. Jong later opted to amputate her left leg below the knee as well.

This turn of events would also ultimately turn her into a repeat world record breaker, one of the biggest stars to watch at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and an advocate for inclusivity.

“I'm there to showcase possibility and to show an inclusive world,” Jong told Olympics.com about taking part in able-bodied athletics events.

“If I've been out there on the big field and on the big screen and on TV at home, someone might have seen me and been like, ‘Wait, but don't panic. You might be sick now, but it's all going to be fine, because I saw a blonde girl doing the long jump and she did it together with all of her long jumping friends and they all had two legs. She hadn't, and it was all fine. They were just competing and enjoying their time'.”

Olympics.com spoke to the Dutch athlete on the 11th anniversary of her infection about how hip hop dance helped her master long jumping on blades, the statement she wants to make by competing in the Diamond League, and the special reason she is taking a train to the Paris 2024 Olympics on 8 August.

From dance floor to the hospital to the track

There have been countless highlights in Jong’s athletics career, from her gold medal at Tokyo 2020 to her world records in the women’s long jump and 100m T64.

Looking back at more than a decade since getting the news of her infection, there is one “defining moment” that stands out in particular, however – the national Paralympic Talent Day in October 2013 where Jong first realised the possibilities of the new life ahead of her.

Jong had little exposure to the Paralympic world before that, but that event gave her a fresh outlook.

“I saw so many people also with prosthetic legs, and they were running and they were jumping. I was like, 'Oh, OK...now we're talking! Could I do this too?',” she recalled. “At that time, it was just about finding stories, finding people who also have a prosthetic leg, and just realising that I'm not the only one.”

With her motivation high, Jong was eager to give Para athletics a try herself. Too anxious to wait for her first blade to arrive, she strapped on her regular prosthetics, headed out to the track and relished the experience.

When she eventually did get the blade in 2014, a year after starting her training, the learning experience started anew.

“I was just bouncing around. I was going forward, but by accident,” Jong said with a laugh. “I had no idea where to direct that energy and how to direct that energy. How do I regulate where I go? How do I go straight? How do I do a bend? How do I...? I had no clue. Now I know, but in the beginning, I was just happy I didn't fall!”

Fleur Jong dances her way into long jump 

After mastering the blade technique, Jong competed at her first world championships in 2015 and the Paralympic Games the following year.

At the start of her journey Jong was a sprinter only, competing in the women’s 100m and 200m. But while she was making progress in the running events, the podium finishes were still eluding her. Jong did not advance from the heats in either event at Rio 2016 and finished a disappointing fourth in the 200m at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.

Experimenting with ways to crack into the medals table, Jong and Guido Bonsen, who has coached the athlete since 2015, decided to give long jump a try after 2018. The spark was immediate.

With the memory of dance moves still in her head, Jong choreographed the perfect long jump flow without a second thought.

“There's a lot of rhythm in the long jump,” explained the Dutch athlete, who has had basic ballet training and has previously competed at a national level with routines that blended hip hop, contemporary, Latin and ballroom. “The rhythm was very natural to me.

“There's a rhythm that goes into the penultimate stride and then you can take off. And I, from the first moment I tried it, I did that. I didn't even know. My coach told me, ‘You're doing the long jump preparation very well’. I was like, ‘OK, that's great. But what is long jump preparation?’.”

That natural fit for the discipline translated into top results as well.

Jong broke the world record a month after she started long jumping. A year later she finished fourth among the long jumpers at the 2019 Worlds. At Tokyo 2020 an elated Jong celebrated becoming a Paralympic champion – and with a world record of 6.16m too, which she has since upgraded multiple times.

Fleur Jong's champion mindset

Setting world records and winning gold medals put Jong into the spotlight in the athletics world.

But it was finishing fourth and missing out on the podium – a frequent occurrence at the start of her career - that she credits for making her the strong athlete she is today.

“It taught me how much I actually love track and field. I started to fall in love with the sport and the feeling of improving yourself,” said Jong, whose first victory came in 2021. “For me it was also like, medals aren't just given. They're earned, and you're got to work really hard.

“In my first two tournaments, I struggled to make the finals and then I made the finals and I constantly kept coming in fourth and, oh my God, I've got so many fourth places behind my name, it's really embarrassing.”

Far from setting any world records then, Jong developed a mindset where she would treat every personal best as if it were a world record.

Multiple records later, that mentality continues to fuel her.

Fleur Jong: A diamond among diamonds

Jong is all about pushing her limits. After winning Paralympic gold and setting world records in both her events, a new challenge was calling.

A few months after Tokyo 2020 she started taking part in able-bodied competitions and has since competed at the national championships, the FBK-Koen Games, and most recently the Diamond League. In Brussels she did long jump in the able-bodied field and in Eugene the Para 100m.

While Jong competes alongside able-bodied athletes at these meets, she emphasised that she has no intention of one day challenging them on the Olympic stage. Rather, her participation in these events is about pushing her own boundaries, as well as raising awareness of Para athletics.

“I thought it wasn't possible. I knew running was possible, which is what I started with, but I had never seen someone with two blades long jumping. So even me, who was already in the Paralympic world and I knew very well that yeah, ‘Everything is possible, think in possibilities, blah blah blah’, even I thought, 'I don't know. Long jumping with two blades? Are you sure?',” she said.

“It's hard to realise that a slogan like that is actually true, so to be on a stage like the Diamond League and be jumping beside able-bodied athletes, it's about the exposure. It's about showing that it is really possible, that we can come a long way, that we can jump really far and we exist, and that wherever it suits the competition, we can compete together as well.”

Meeting fellow long jumpers is one of the side perks of taking part in these meets. While Olympic and Paralympic long jumpers usually compete on different circuits, Jong said they have no problem finding common ground thanks to their shared love of the sport.

“We're not that much different. We're long jumpers and my results are listed in a different sheet than your results, but that's all the difference there is,” Jong said. “I was with Ivana Spanovic and she was like, ‘Hi, I'm Ivana. I like long jump. Oh, you like long jump? Oh, we're friends now because we both have the same love’, so it's very easy.”

Meeting and jumping with Serbian world champion Spanovic, Italy's rising star Larissa Iapichino, and Tokyo 2020 champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany, were particular highlights for Jong – so much so that the Dutch Paralympian will put her own training on hold for a day to take a three-hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris on 8 August and watch the women’s long jump final.

“I'm so into it,” she said. “I'm just so excited to see all of them jump and perform.”

Paris 2024: 'I'm going to be the favourite and it's a privilege'

Jong’s own campaign for her second and third Paralympic gold will begin a few weeks later. She has already tasted success in Paris during the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in the French capital where she won gold in both 100m and long jump, the latter with a world record of 6.28m.

With that winning streak to her name, Jong knows she is going to the Kobe 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in May and later Paris 2024, in a different status than at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Far from daunted, however, she prefers to see it as an honour.

“I cannot hide anymore. This is the point where I'm going to be the favourite and that's OK,” the Paralympic champion said. “It's a privilege. And actually, it's what you work for all the time because everyone who takes up professional track and field, we want to be the best. Right now, I am the best. I want to stay the best. I'm in a position where I wanted to be for years.”

There are two goals for Jong heading forward: gold medals on the track and, off the track, inspiring more girls to take up Para athletics.

And if these same girls she inspired start to challenge her? All the better.

"Come out on the track," she offered with a smile. "Try, come get me. It's fine. We'll all get better from it.”