Columbia High School alumnus JuVaughn Harrison, who recently finished up his historic senior year at Louisiana State, made more history on Sunday, becoming the first American man since Jim Thorpe in 1912 to qualify for the Olympic team in both long jump and high jump.
The Huntsville native did it in style too, winning both events.
In high jump, held first, Harrison cleared 2.33m (7 feet, 7.75 inches). Then in the long jump — Harrison got a much longer rest thanks to the heat-induced pause — he soared to a personal-best 8.47m (27-9.5) on his fourth try.
Joining Harrison in high jump is University of Tennessee grad student Darryl Sullivan, who struggled at the lower heights, but would also clear 2.33m, and Shelby McEwen, who represented the U.S. at the World Championships in 2019 and jumped 2.30m (7-6.5).
Harrison's long jump teammates are Marquis Dendy (8.38m, 27-6), who has been on two World Championship teams but was in that heartbreaking fourth-place finisher spot for the 2016 Rio Games, and Texas senior Steffin McCarter, who was just fifth at the NCAA Championships a couple of weeks ago but put together a much better series on Sunday night, matching his lifetime best of 8.26m (27-1.25) on his third jump, which held up and sends him to Tokyo.
