Christian Taylor returns after Olympic dream dashed; Diamond League TV, stream info

On Saturday, triple jumper Christian Taylor competes in his first full-fledged Diamond League track and field meet in three years. So much has changed in that span.

Since his last meet on the sport’s elite circuit: Taylor won his fourth world title in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic mostly wiped out the 2020 season. Taylor ruptured his Achilles two months before the Tokyo Olympics, keeping him from going for a third consecutive Olympic title. He married Austrian hurdler Beate Schrott

Taylor, now 31, went nearly 11 months between competitions, returning at first for lower-level meets starting in April. In three triple jump events this season, he finished sixth, eighth and sixth with a best of 16.11 meters, ranking outside the top 80 in the world for 2022.

Taylor’s personal best, from 2015, is 18.21 meters, ranking second in history behind Brit Jonathan Edwards‘ world record of 18.29.

Taylor, who has a bye into July’s world championships as a reigning world champion, continues his build back up at the Paris Diamond League on Saturday. CNBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock air live coverage from 3-5 p.m. ET.

The meet may be an early measuring stick for Taylor given the field includes all three Olympic medalists, plus the world’s top two men this year.

Taylor deemed this “the season of gratitude” and said the goal is to get through it healthy, according to Olympics.com.

“It’s a process, and I’m gonna eat a lot of humble pie this summer,” he said before his first triple jump competition this spring, according to TeamUSA.org.

Here are the Paris entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):

1:30 p.m. — Women’s High Jump 2:09 — Men’s Pole Vault 2:11 — Men’s 110m Hurdles Heat 1 2:15 — Women’s