Triple crown of bridge
The triple crown of bridge is a career achievement in duplicate bridge, namely winning the three marquee Open world championships conducted by the World Bridge Federation. The Bermuda Bowl is now contested by national teams in odd-number years. The Olympiad Open Teams, contested by national teams in Olympic years, has been incorporated in the World [Mind Sports Games]. The Olympiad Open Pairs, now World Open Pairs Championship, is contested in non-Olympic even-number years.
The Bermuda Bowl was inaugurated in 1950, eight years before the World Bridge Federation was established with the general purpose to conduct world championships at bridge. There were 23 renditions to 1977, when it became biennial. The Teams and Pairs "Olympiads", as they were both called when inaugurated by the WBF in 1960 and 1962, have always been quadrennial. Pierre Jaïs and Roger Trézel of France won both of the inaugural Olympiads; thus, as 1956 Bermuda Bowl champions, they achieved the triple crown on the earliest possible occasion.
Ten players have accomplished the feat, although two of them were convicted of cheating in 2016 and banned for life from playing with each other. Bold highlights the year each player completed the triple crown.
| Name | Bermuda Bowl | Olympiad/WMSG Open Teams | World Open Pairs | ||
 WomenThere are parallel events restricted to Women, contested in the same WBF meets. That has been true from the original Olympiad Teams and Pairs tournaments in 1960 and 1962, and from 1985 for the Venice Cup alongside the Bermuda Bowl. The Venice Cup trophy was first contested in 1974, first as a WBF world championship in 1978A single world championship meet, with events for Open and Women teams, was conducted by the International Bridge League in 1937. Austria was a double winner and one of its women players, Rixi Scharfstein, completed a unique triple crown in the 1960s. Now Rixi Markus of Great Britain, she won the inaugural Olympiad Pairs in 1962 and Olympiad Teams in 1964.
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