Triple Crown of Bridge

As of 2008, only ten players have collected The Triple Crown of Contract Bridge, that is won all of the three most important tournaments in bridge, the Bermuda Bowl, the World Team Olympiad and the World Open Pairs Championship. The ten winners are:

Name Bermuda Bowl Olympiad World Pairs
Pierre Jaïs 1956 1960 1962
Roger Trézel 1956 1960 1962
Bob Hamman 1970 1988 1974
Bobby Wolff 1970 1988 1974
Jeff Meckstroth 1981 1988 1986
Eric Rodwell 1981 1988 1986
Marcelo Branco 1989 1976 1978
Gabriel Chagas 1989 1976 1990
Fulvio Fantoni 2005 2004 2002
Claudio Nunes 2005 2004 2002

The year in bold is the year in which each player won the concluding of his three titles.

As the World Team Olympiad and the World Open Pairs Championship alternate in subsequent even-numbered years, whilst the Bermuda Bowl is held in the odd-numbered years, in theory it is possible to win the three triple crown events in a timespan of no more than three years. So far, no bridge player has accomplished this feat. Closest came Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes who won the three events in a timespan of four years. As defending champions they ended third in the 2006 World Open Pairs Championship, the closest any partnership ever got in defending their title in this event. A win would have secured them a 'three-year' triple crown.

Famous quotes containing the words triple, crown and/or bridge:

    “Their martyred blood and ashes sow
    O’er all the Italian fields where still doth sway
    The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
    A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
    Early may fly the Babylonian woe.”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)

    “a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.
    Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it, lest thy heart be put to proof,
    In the dead unhappy night, and when the rain is on the roof.”
    —Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

    “I see four nuns
    who sit like a bridge club,
    their faces poked out
    from under their habits,”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)