Tara Davis-Woodhall wins long jump gold at Paris 2024 Olympics

SAINT-DENIS, France — Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall thought about quitting. She said she struggled with depression and body image issues. She went through, in her words, “hell and came back.”

But on the other side of it all, there was that moment she experienced Thursday night at the Stade de France, falling backwards into the sandbox, knowing she was finally and forever an Olympic champion.

Davis-Woodhall won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday by leaping 7.1 meters (or more than 23 feet) over that same sand trap, setting a bar on her fourth attempt of the night that no one else in the field — including reigning Olympic gold medalist Malaika Mihambo of Germany — would be able to match.

It was a moment of redemption for the 25-year-old after a disappointing second-place finish at last year’s world championships. And an emotional one, considering everything she’s been through.

“I’ve done my best to stay positive and motivated this year,” she said. “That motivation has come to fruition, and that fruition has come to fruition. And the reality is this: I’m an Olympic gold medalist.”

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She was joined on the podium by another American, Jasmine Moore, who placed third. Mihambo took silver.

Thursday’s gold medal was the crowning achievement of one of track and field’s most charismatic stars, a woman known for wearing a cowboy hat to competitions and who can always be counted on to give the crowd a slow applause before one of her jumps.

Few athletes can match Davis-Woodhall’s energy and enthusiasm, and even fewer her social media following. Between Instagram and TikTok, she has more than a million followers. She also runs a YouTube channel with her husband, Hunter Woodhall, who is a Team USA Paralympian.

But beyond the infectious smile fans see in the stadium, Davis-Woodhall has also spoken openly about her mental health and her struggles with depression. In November 2020, while competing at the University of Texas, she said she hit a low point, staying in her room for almost an entire week, struggling to get out of bed.

“Mentally, I was in a tough spot,” Davis-Woodhall said during a media roundtable in New York earlier this year. “I didn’t want to be here anymore.”

Her depression led her to question everything, including whether she wanted to give up the sport that had been her lifelong passion.

After transferring from Georgia to Texas, Davis-Woodhall said she struggled to deal with the broader impacts of COVID-19 and the effects of a broken back. At first, she had trouble bonding with her new teammates. The city of Austin felt foreign.

Davis-Woodhall said she got out of that malaise by getting out of bed and giving herself a deadline: December 7, 2020. It was the arbitrary date by which she would decide whether she wanted to continue athletics or quit. “I basically made a pros and cons list of why I should quit athletics and why I should stay,” she recalled.

Eventually, Davis-Woodhall realized she had a choice. Having started competing at age 4 and with her father as her head coach, the idea of ​​not competing in track and field had never been an option. Now it was, as was the daily choice to get out of bed and try to adopt a cheerful attitude.

“I think that’s when I realized it was my choice,” Davis-Woodhall said. “Either we continue to be sad and stay in bed all day, or we go out and enjoy life, a life that we only get to live once.”

The years that followed were marked by career highs and new challenges. In 2021, she set a college record at Texas, placed second at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and finished sixth at the Tokyo Games. Then, in 2023, she tested positive for THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, and was stripped of her national indoor title. She then finished second at the world championships, which was disappointing.

The start of the new year, however, brought change. Davis-Woodhall said she’s taken every aspect of her career to the next level, from her training to her recovery to her sleep and diet. She also said this spring that she’s more comfortable with her body image, embracing the more muscular arms and shoulders she hid under a hoodie in high school.

“I wasn’t able to be myself for a while, and it sucked. It sucks not to be able to be free,” she said. “And now that I am, I’m not going back.”

Davis-Woodhall, who was recently hired as an assistant coach at Kansas State, is among a number of Team USA athletes who now speak openly and frequently about the importance of mental health, crediting their therapists in celebratory press conferences. Another such athlete, star gymnast Simone Biles, was in attendance at the Stade de France on Thursday night.

For Davis-Woodhall, it all comes back to that idea of ​​choice. She has the word “sacrifice” tattooed on her chest, and she knows what it means. But she chose it, especially over the past four years. And it led to Thursday night, when she jumped over a sandbox and into her husband’s arms along the railing at the edge of the first row of seats, smiling broadly and laughing.

It was, she later confirmed, one of the items on the list of pros and cons of 2020: the chance to win a gold medal. It was a reason to keep going. And on Thursday, she couldn’t have been happier to have achieved it.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.