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Former Georgia, Texas star Tara Davis-Woodhall claims gold in long jump at World Indoor Championships

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•03/03/24
Tara Davis-Woodhall
Photo by Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports

A former Georgia and Texas track and field star is in prime form ahead of this year’s summer Olympics, with Tara Davis-Woodhall claiming the gold medal in the long jump at the World Indoor Championships.

Davis-Woodhall cleared 7.07 meters on her jump, which isn’t even her best jump this year.

Her best jump came at the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships, as she jumped 7.18 meters, which led the world at the time. She has won every indoor meet she has participated in this year.

The track star has a lot to work toward after a tumultuous year.

She finished in second place in Budapest in August, but she has been blunt that she felt she could do more.

“I always want to be on top and I have to give myself a chance to do that this year,” she said in a telephone interview last week with the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve dialed in so much more than I ever have before. … I was saying all offseason that I just have to put something out there so far that no one can touch it.”

That personal best of 7.18 would certainly do it. But that Davis-Woodhall is rounding into form now, a few months ahead of the Olympics, is absolutely key. She figures to be a vital part of the United States’ plans.

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Davis-Woodhall has had quite the journey to get here.

In college she transferred from Georgia to Texas after helping the Bulldogs win a 2018 NCAA indoor championships title. But she had to sit out at Texas in both 2019 and 2020, as a result of her transfer and then COVID-19.

She returned to the track after that and began to see more immediate success.

She set college records both indoors and outdoors and placed sixth at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.

But scandal was right around the corner, as Davis-Woodhall won the USA Track & Field title in the indoor championships in February 2023. Her title would be stripped after a positive test for marijuana, which is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Now with considerably more momentum and jumping excellently, Tara Davis-Woodhall will continue her journey toward the 2024 Olympic Games.