The men's triple jump field event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place on September 6.

[1] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

His countryman Vladimir Goryaev took silver; this made the Soviet Union the fourth nation to have two men on the podium in the same year in the triple jump (the United States, Sweden, and Japan) and the fourth nation to reach the podium three Games in a row (the United States, Finland, and Japan).

Returning finalists from the 1956 Games were two-time gold medalist (and three-time finalist) Adhemar da Silva of Brazil, silver medalist Vilhjálmur Einarsson of Iceland, bronze medalist Vitold Kreyer of the Soviet Union, two men each from the United States (Bill Sharpe and Ira Davis), Japan (Koji Sakurai and Hiroshi Shibata), and Finland (Kari Rahkamo and Hannu Rantala), Ryszard Malcherczyk of Poland, and Éric Battista of France.

But among this veteran field, an Olympic newcomer was favored: Józef Szmidt was the European champion and had broken the world record with the first over-17-metre jump at the Polish championships a month before the Games.