June 29, 1994 – French athlete Gaël Ovois decided to drop a showstopper; he sprinted down the runway and launched into a spectacular 7.86 m long jump, setting a record for all the long jump athletes in the Réunion Island. But track and field is a sport where records don’t usually last very long. However, Ovois’ record lasted for 31 years before this 15-year-old decided to shake the tables. What did he do?

History was created at the National meeting of Pézenas on June 15, 2025, when 15-year-old Maïdis Gorrillot broke Gaël Ovois’ 31-year-old record. He recorded a distance of exactly 8 meters in the long jump. With this, not only does he break the record for the longest jump in the meet, but also his personal best by 66 centimetres. Now he is the youngest ever to break the 8m barrier at just 15, smashing the previous age-15 world best of 7.90m set by Daniele Inzoli last year.

Gorrillot’s list of accolades does not end here. This performance has marked him as the 17th-best U18 world performer of all time! Only cadets Viktor Kuznyetsov (8m12 on December 20, 2003), Rémi Mourié (8m05 on June 14, 2025), and Mattia Furlani (8m04 on July 5, 2022) have ever jumped further in the history of European athletics. All that at the mere age of 15, no wonder he has fans talking, “15? Boy not driving but he flying“.

The teenager even hit the requirements for the European Championships U23, though he isn’t eligible given his age. He is coached by his mom, Laurence Oleggini, who is an athletics coach but also a physical education teacher on Réunion Island along with the help of prestigious French show jumping coaches, such as David Vincent and Gérard Vialette.

Now the track and field community, especially long jump enthusiasts, are in quite shock. They find it hard to believe that someone this young can excel so brilliantly in the sport. Fan reactions are only those of pure shock.

Track and field community in awe of the 15-year-old’s performance

The track and field community is still somewhat in awe of what they witnessed. Some are impressed, while some are still relling from the shock. One fan said, “Beautiful performance for a cadet born in 2009. A big congratulations!👍” Maïdis Gorrillot was born on the island of Haiti in 2009. She was adopted by a French couple living on Réunion Island. Her father (whose name is not publicly available information) and her mother Laurence Oleggini, a former French athlete and coach from an Italian family, has lived in the French overseas territory for three decades.

Another fan took to the comment section to say, “15 years old going 26’2! Good grief 😮“. The gasping face emoji sums up how no one was prepared for a 31-year-old record to be broken with ease, let alone by a 15-year-old, jumping 26 feet, 2 inches (almost 8 meters). Another fan said, “trackflation has officially hit field events 💔” Now that is a new word, but what it means is that just like how inflation in economics means that money loses its value because there’s more of it, trackflation implies that track records are falling faster and more frequently. Gorrillot is a track athlete as well.

As a matter of fact, Gorrillot had only been practicing the long jump for two years. Previously, he had dedicated himself to sprinting and the high jump (1.88m personal best). This year, he ran his first 100m among professionals with a personal best of 10.99 seconds (8.85s in 80m and 21.76s in 200m). Another fan said, “My god, everyone just keeps getting more awesome“. At The Pézenas Meeting, Rémi Mourié (2008) soared at 8 meters, 8 centimeters to set a new French record for U-18 athletes, and previously, senior athlete Julien Pauthonnier (1999) propelled himself to 8.18 meters to win the competition.

So yeah, everybody is awesome, and probably more records are on their way to be broken. What are your thoughts?