- Thea LaFond won the gold medal in the triple jump in Paris
- Her brother, Navy defensive end Chreign LaFond found out at football practice
- Whole team breaks to cheer and celebrate in the moment
What started out as an ordinary practice session at the Navy Midshipmen for Chreign LaFond turned into something he would never forget when his coach broke some special news to him.
Winning family
In a clip shared by Navy Football that has gone viral, defensive end Chreign was hard at work when a coach calls him over and says “hey, your sister just won a gold medal!”
The sister in question is Thea LaFond, who had just won gold in the triple jump at the Olympic Games in Paris. Not only that, but Thea became the first person representing Dominica to win a medal of any colour in track and field events at the Olympics.
On hearing the fantastic news, Chreign goes over and hugs one of his coaches, just before the rest of the team get to him and huddle around him, cheering enthusiastically and shouting “Let’s go! Let’s go!”
Navy Football captioned the wholesome clip ‘the moment when you find out your sister won a gold medal at the Olympics’ adding ‘Congratulations Thea LaFond.’
Excelled at athletics
Thea, 30, was born on the Caribbean island of Dominica, which is home to about 72,000 people and has no formal track and field facilities.
The LaFond family moved to the US when Thea was five, and her talent at track and field was recognised when she was in high school and she later went on to compete for the University of Maryland, excelling at triple jump and high jump.
In international competition, LaFond has competed at two previous Olympics – 2016 in Rio and 2021 in Tokyo and won the World Indoor Championships triple jump title earlier this year.
