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

The event was won by Józef Szmidt of Poland, the third man to repeat as Olympic champion in the triple jump.

Szmidt had won the European championship again in 1962 and would have been the favorite but for a recent knee surgery that made his ability to repeat questionable.

[2] The Bahamas, Hong Kong, Madagascar, Romania, and Senegal each made their first appearance in the event.

The qualification jumps were ignored, each jumper starting with a clean slate in the final.