Jean-Paul Lakafia (born 29 June 1961) is a retired male javelin thrower from France; he was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia. He competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, finishing in 12th place. He set his personal best (86.60 metres) in 1985.

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  France
1984	Olympic Games	Los Angeles, United States	12th	Javelin throw	70.86 m
1989	Jeux de la Francophonie	Casablanca, Morocco	1st	Javelin throw	73.38 m
Representing  New Caledonia
1979	South Pacific Games	Suva, Fiji	1st	Javelin throw	64.44 m
1983	South Pacific Games	Apia, Western Samoa	1st	Javelin throw	84.74 m GR (old design)
			2nd	Decathlon	5835 pts
1987	South Pacific Games	Nouméa, New Caledonia	1st	Javelin throw	78.96 m GR (current design)
1991	South Pacific Games	Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea	1st	Javelin throw	77.12 m

Lakafia has a daughter Chanelle and two sons, Pierre-Gilles and Raphaël, who are both French rugby union players.

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jean-Paul Lakafia". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2012-07-06.