SAINT-DENIS, France — One of the coolest scenes in today’s track and field is Tara Davis-Woodhall standing on the end of a runway. Before she sprints down the runway, she uses her contagious spirit to infect the crowd.
Many field athletes lead the crowd in a progressive clap. It’s a tradition. But it’s different when it’s Davis-Woodhall. Something about hers feels less like the middle innings of a minor league game, and more like a major league crowd in the ninth inning of a tight game, they are behind her.
Thursday, it was the 80,000-seat Stade de France, obliging one of the darlings of the field, reciprocating her bounding energy. Davis rode the wave to the seven-foot jump that escaped her three years ago. Two of them.
Davis-Woodhall, who finished sixth in the women’s long jump final in Tokyo, captured gold this time with a maximum distance of 7.10.
She beat defending Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, 30, of Germany, the only woman to jump further than Davis-Woodhall’s 7.18 meters this season. Mihambo topped out at 6.98 for the silver medal.
At 25 years old, and in her second Olympics, Davis-Woodhall becomes the third American woman in the last four cycles to win gold.
Brittany Reese — who medaled in three straight Olympics before returing after Tokyo — won gold in 2016. Tianna Bartoletta did it in 2012.
Jasmine Moore, who got things jumping with a 6.96 on her first jump, won the bronze medal. Already with a bronze in the triple jump, she becomes the first woman in Olympic history to medal in the triple and long jumps.
Monae’ Nichols capped out at 6.67 and out of medal contention.
Davis-Woodhall’s medal also makes it the fourth consecutive Olympics the U.S. has made the podium. Six of the last 12 medals have gone to Americans: a gold and two silvers to Reese, a gold to Bartoletta, a silver to Davis-Woodhall and a 2012 bronze to Janay DeLoach.
In the previous 16 Olympics — between 1948 London and 2008 Beijing — American women totaled five medals. Three were won by Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who took gold in 1988 and back-to-back bronze in 1992 and 1996. The only other American medalists were Willye White in 1956 and Kathy McMillan in 1976.
Davis-Woodhall, one of the most popular athletes in American track and field, is the only woman from the States to jump seven feet. She’d done it five times already this year. The most clutch coming at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Down to her last jump after fouls on her first two jumps, she hit the third one to stay alive in the competition. She didn’t reveal how scared she was until after she got official word the jump was clean. Then she let her nerves bubble to the surface, holding her chest and hyperventilating at how close she was to missing the Olympics.
Two jumps later, she cleared Moore’s personal-best jump (6.98) with a 7.00 on her final jump.
The Olympic final was void of the tense moments because Davis-Woodhall was on her game. She jumped a 7.05 on her second jump, responding to Moore’s big hump. Two jumps later, she got to 7.10 just for good measure.
No other woman reached seven feet.
On their final jumps, they all knew they needed something massive to beat Davis-Woodhall. No one came close. Mihambo, on her sixth jump, charged down the runway look for some magic. But she never took off, stumbling and running through the sand for a foul.
Then it hit Davis-Woodhall. With tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face, she lined up for a final jump, presumably to attempt the world record. But it didn’t matter. After she landed, she popped up, flashed her trademark smile to the crowd, then playfully fell backwards in the sand to the delight of the crowd. Contagious.
(Photo: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)
