First Impressions - Brittney Reese

Published by IAAF on September 12, 2016

Seven-time global champion Brittney Reese has been the most dominant long jumper of her generation. Here the US athlete talks about a few firsts of significance.

First Track Coach

It was my high school coach, Prince Jones. He was a great coach, a great disciplinarian. He was a great guy and a real father figure to all the girls he coached. He was not only a coach but also an athletics director and I really appreciate the role he played in my career for my first four years in the sport. I started out as a sprinter, but he was the guy who introduced me to the long jump.

First Long Jump Competition

It was at high school and I remember I won with a jump of about 16ft (4.88m). I was aged 16 and sprinting at the time and I recall coach brought the basketball team out to find a long jumper. The motivation during that first ever long jump competition was that whoever jumped the farthest was bought a Coca-Cola. Once I had this goal in mind, nothing was going to stop me.