Tara Davis-Woodhall considered giving up. She claimed to have struggled with body image and depression. She said she’s been “through hell and back.”
On the other hand, all of that was eclipsed by the moment she had on Thursday night at the Stade de France, when she fell backward into the sand pit and realized she had won the Olympics, once and for all.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Davis-Woodhall won gold on Thursday by leaping 7.1 meters (more than 23 feet) over the same sand pit.
On her fourth try of the evening, she set a record that no one else in the field, not even the reigning Olympic gold medalist Malaika Mihambo of Germany, could match.
For the 25-year-old, it was a moment of redemption following a depressing second-place result at the world championships the previous year. Considering everything she’s been through, it’s also an emotional one.
“I tried so hard to just keep on being positive this year and keep on being motivated,” she stated. “That inspiration became a manifestation, which then became a reality. And the truth is that I won an Olympic gold medal.”
Third-place finisher Jasmine Moore, another American, joined her on the podium. Mihambo won the silver. One of the most endearing athletes in track and field, who has been known to wear a cowboy hat during events and is always dependable to start a slow clap with the crowd before one of her leaps, considered Thursday’s gold medal to be her highest achievement.
Few athletes have the same obvious zest and intensity as Davis-Woodhall, and even fewer have as much of a social media following. She has over a million followers on Instagram and TikTok combined. Along with her spouse, Hunter Woodhall, a Paralympic athlete for Team USA, she also manages a YouTube account.
Beyond the contagious smile that spectators witness in the stadium, Davis-Woodhall has been transparent about her struggles with depression and mental health.
She claimed to have reached a low point in November 2020, while competing at the University of Texas, spending nearly a whole week in her room and finding it difficult to get out of bed. Davis-Woodhall stated, “Mentally, I was in a dark place,” earlier this year in a media roundtable in New York.
“I just didn’t want to be here anymore.” She began to doubt everything as a result of her despair, even her desire to give up the sport that had been her lifelong passion.
Following her transfer from Georgia to Texas, Davis-Woodhall said that she was having trouble dealing with the COVID-19’s wider effects as well as the aftereffects of a broken back.
She initially struggled to establish a connection with her new companions. She felt out of her element in Austin. According to Davis-Woodhall, she got out of bed and set a deadline for herself: December 7, 2020.
This helped her overcome that state of being. That was the arbitrary deadline by which she would make her decision to either give up track and field or stick with it. “I actually made a pros and cons list of why I should quit track, and why I should stay,” she said.
In the end, Davis-Woodhall realized she had options. The thought of giving up track and field had never occurred to her because she began competing at the age of four and had her father as her main coach.
It was now, just like the daily decision to roll over and attempt to adopt a happy disposition. When Davis-Woodhall commented, “I think that’s when I realized ‘OK, this is my choice,'” “We can either continue to be sad and be in bed all day, or we can go outside and enjoy life − a life that we only have one time to live.”
Since then, there have been greater obstacles along with career highs. She finished sixth at the Tokyo Games in 2021 after setting a collegiate record at Texas and placing second at the US Olympic trials. Then, in 2023, she tested positive for THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, which led to the revocation of her national indoor title. That was followed by a dismal second place performance at the world championships.
But things changed as the new year got underway. According to Davis-Woodhall, she pursued “the next level” in every area of her profession, including nutrition, sleep, and training and recuperation.
She added in the spring that she had become more at ease with the way she looked, accepting the stronger arms and shoulders that she had previously concealed beneath a hoodie during high school. It was awful that I couldn’t be myself for a spell. Not being able to just be free stinks,” the woman remarked. “And I’m not going back now that I am.”
Recently hired as an assistant coach at Kansas State, Davis-Woodhall is one of numerous Team USA athletes who now publicly discuss the value of mental health on a regular basis, acknowledging their therapists in joyous press appearances. Star gymnast Simone Biles is another such athlete that was present at the Stade de France on Thursday night.
For Davis-Woodhall, the concept of choice is central to everything. The word “sacrifice” is permanently inked on her upper body, and she is well aware of its meaning. However, especially in the last four years, she has made that choice. And it took her to Thursday night, when she jumped over a sand pit and into her husband’s arms while grinning broadly and laughing at the railing at the edge of the front row of seats.
She later said that the chance to take home a gold medal was one of the items on the pro-con list for 2020. It served as motivation to press on. She couldn’t have been happier that she did on Thursday.
