2005–2007 Rutherford became the youngest ever winner of the long jump event at the
AAA Championships in 2005, aged 18. where he finished 8th. He won the AAA championships again that year with a jump of 8.26 m. On 8 August 2006, he won the silver medal in the long jump at the
European Athletics Championships in
Gothenburg with a jump of 8.13 m. Rutherford missed much of the 2007 season due to a succession of injury problems, including an ankle injury for which he had surgery in February of that year. He competed at the
2007 World Championships but did not reach the final, finishing 21st in the qualifying round.
2008–2011 Rutherford won the AAA title on 12 July 2008, reaching the Olympic qualifying distance of 8.20 m. He also won the
London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace two weeks later with a distance of 8.16 m. At the
2008 Olympics in Beijing Rutherford qualified for the final in third place with a distance of 8.16 m. In the final, he had two no-jumps in the first two rounds, and recorded a distance of 7.84 m in the third round. This was not enough to place him in the top 8 who would continue to the final three rounds, and he finished in 10th place. , 2010 Rutherford set a British record of 8.30 m on 20 August 2009 in the qualifying round of the
World Athletics Championships in Berlin, improving the previous record held by Chris Tomlinson by 1 cm. Rutherford did not compete at the
2010 European Championships due to a foot injury. At the
2010 Commonwealth Games, he won the silver medal with a jump of 8.22 m. Rutherford extended his personal best in the long jump to 8.32 m at the Eugene Diamond League meeting on 4 June 2011, although it was not recognised as a British record as it was
wind assisted. In July 2011 Chris Tomlinson broke Rutherford's British record with a jump of 8.35 m in Paris. At the
2011 World Championships, Rutherford injured a
hamstring during the qualifying round and did not reach the final. After the 2011 season, Rutherford worked on his take-off technique with his coach
Dan Pfaff, adopting a technique based on that of
Carl Lewis of making the penultimate step of the approach a lateral step outwards.
2012 Rutherford equalled Tomlinson's British record on 3 May 2012 with a jump of 8.35 m at the OTC Pre-Olympic Series II event in
Chula Vista, California. It was also the longest jump of 2012 at the time (later equalled by
Sergey Morgunov on 20 June). At the
2012 Olympics in London, Rutherford reached the final with a jump of 8.08 m, qualifying in fourth place. In the final, he took the lead in the second round with a jump of 8.21 m, improving to 8.31 m in the fourth round which proved to be the winning jump. the first was
Lynn Davies in 1964. it was 15 cm ahead of silver medallist
Mitchell Watt and his second-best jump of 8.21 m would also have been enough to win the gold. Rutherford's gold was one of three won by British track and field athletes on the evening of 4 August 2012 (the others were won by
Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon and
Mo Farah in the men's 10,000 m); this was the first time that three gold medals had been won by British athletes in the same Olympic athletics session. Following his gold medal, Rutherford (as with the other British 2012 Olympic champions) was featured on a
Royal Mail postage stamp, and two post boxes in Milton Keynes were painted gold in his honour.
2013 Rutherford parted company with Dan Pfaff, his coach, in early 2013, when Pfaff returned to his native United States. Rutherford sustained a hamstring injury during the
Paris Diamond League meeting on 6 July, which forced him to withdraw midway through the competition.
British Athletics delayed announcing their selection for the men's long jump at the
World Championships due to the injury, but on 30 July Rutherford's selection was confirmed after he passed fitness tests. At the championships Rutherford failed to reach the final, finishing 14th in the qualifying round on 14 August with a jump of 7.87m. In the autumn of 2013 Rutherford appointed Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo as his coach. Tawiah-Dodoo also coaches 100 m
2013 European Junior Champion Chijindu Ujah and 200 m
2011 European Junior Champion David Bolarinwa. Rutherford's decision to work with a sprint coach was inspired by advice from former World and Olympic long jump champion
Dwight Phillips. In April, at an early season event at the
Olympic Training Center in
Chula Vista, California, Rutherford jumped a personal best of 8.51m, setting a new British record. The new record was disputed by rival long-jumper
Chris Tomlinson, who used video evidence to suggest the jump was illegal, but a technical panel assembled by
UK Athletics deemed the video evidence to be inconclusive, and the record was upheld. Rutherford won the gold medal at the
Commonwealth Games in July with a jump of 8.20m. In August he won gold at the
European Athletics Championships with a jump of 8.29m.
2015 In February 2015 Rutherford won the
Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix with a jump of 8.17m, a new indoor personal best. In June he won the Diamond League events in
Birmingham with a jump of 8.35m, and in
Oslo with a jump of 8.25m. Rutherford won the gold medal at the
World Championships on 25 August with a jump of 8.41 m, his second-longest jump ever and the furthest he has so far jumped in a major championship. He is one of only six athletes to jump over 8.40 m in a world championship final this century. His victory made him the fifth British athlete to hold Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles simultaneously, after
Daley Thompson,
Linford Christie,
Sally Gunnell and
Jonathan Edwards. The following week, Rutherford won the long jump at the final
IAAF Diamond League event of the year, the Weldklasse in Zurich. In doing so, he confirmed his victory in the overall Diamond race for the event, making him the first British athlete ever to hold all available outdoor titles – National (British), Continental (European), Commonwealth, Diamond League, World and Olympic titles – at the same time.
2016 in Amsterdam In February 2016 Rutherford set a new British indoor long jump record of 8.26m in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In July he successfully defended his
European Championship title with a jump of 8.25m. Rutherford took the bronze medal at the
2016 Summer Olympics with a jump of 8.29m in the final round, behind
Jeff Henderson who won gold and
Luvo Manyonga who won silver. He expressed his disappointment afterwards at not having retained his Olympic title, describing it as a "bitter pill". At the end of the 2016 season, Rutherford hosted a long jump competition using the pit he had built in his back garden, for members of his athletics club, Marshall Milton Keynes. Although he did not compete in the long jump, he competed in the alternative standing long jump event, reaching a distance of 3.26 metres. There are plans for other, larger competitions in the future, with Rutherford planning to invite many jumpers from the international circuit to compete. The event was held as part of the nationwide "I Am Team GB" sports day.
2017–2018 In July 2017 Rutherford announced that he could not defend his title on home ground at the upcoming
World Championships as he had not recovered from an ankle injury sustained the previous month. The following February he withdrew from the
2018 Commonwealth Games, due to be held on the
Gold Coast in Australia that April, due to a lack of training following his recovery from the ankle injury. In June of that year Rutherford announced his retirement from the sport due to ongoing pain in his left ankle: he also expressed an interest in taking up
track cycling, revealing that he had discussed the possibility of undertaking performance testing with
British Cycling. He subsequently returned to the
London Stadium to compete at the 2018 Anniversary Games in July, and made his last appearance in competition at the Great North CityGames in Newcastle in September 2018. Following his retirement, Rutherford and fellow athlete
Morgan Lake undertook assessments with
British Rowing in November 2018, based on their World Class Start talent identification programme: he set a new record for their
leg press test.
Sledding career Having already expressed an interest in competing in bobsleigh or skeleton in 2014, Rutherford trained alongside his new team-mates for the first time the following month. In September 2021 Rutherford was selected as part of the British bobsleigh team for the
2021–22 Bobsleigh World Cup and which would attempt to
qualify for the two-man and four-man events
2022 Winter Olympics in
Beijing, forming part of a five-man squad alongside pilot
Lamin Deen and fellow push athletes
Joel Fearon,
Ben Simons and
Toby Olubi. However, Deen and his crew did not achieve the qualifying standard of three top 12 finishes in the World Cup, resulting in them not securing a slot at the Olympics. ==Media appearances==