Tia Jones was hoping to get revenge on Masai Russell after narrowly losing to her at the Grand Slam Track meeting in Miami in May 2025. Russell won the 100m hurdles in 12.17 seconds, just 0.02 seconds ahead of Jones, who clocked 12.19. But when the two met again at the 50th Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, on July 5, 2025, things took a painful turn for Jones. She suffered an Achilles injury during the race and failed to finish, while Russell placed fourth in 12.50 seconds. Now, Jones has opened up about the warning signs she experienced before the race and why she chose to compete despite the pain.

Speaking on the October 12 episode of Ready Set Go with hosts Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green, Jones revealed, “My Achilles was hurting probably the worst it has hurt the entire season,” she recalled. The pain was so bad that she felt she could barely walk. “But when I ran, I was running fast,” Jones explained. She said the pain seemed to ease while she was running but returned as soon as she stopped.

The problem was serious enough that she and her coach had to modify her warm-up routine. Looking back, they both questioned why they had not made the decision to withdraw her from the race. “It was hurting so bad,” she said.

The wait before the race only added to the problem. Jones explained that athletes sometimes have to wait around an hour before competing, giving their bodies time to cool down. As she waited, the pain in her Achilles returned. By the time she reached the starting line, she had a strong feeling that she should not be there.

“As soon as I got on that line, I don’t know, I just had the biggest breeze and it was like, ‘Girl, you need to get up off this line,’” Jones recalled. But her determination to compete won out. “Me being so bullheaded and me being so fierce, I was like, ‘No, I got to run.’” Jones was running well when the injury happened. As she approached the third or fourth hurdle, she was level with the field and felt she was about to accelerate away from the other athletes. Then, as she pushed off with her trail leg, the tendon popped.

“As soon as I pushed, it popped and then I hit the hurdle and then I fell,” she said. The sound was so loud that Jones initially thought another gun had been fired.  After hitting the hurdle, Jones’s momentum carried her off the track. At first, she was still trying to understand what had happened. Then the burning sensation in her leg began to intensify. 

As the pain grew, Jones grabbed her leg and began crying. She immediately feared the worst. “I just started crying and I was just like, ‘Yeah, it’s torn.’ Like, I already know it’s gone.” The Achilles injury ended her 2025 season, but the setback has stretched far beyond that race.

Around 15 months later, Jones has yet to compete even once in 2026. For a hurdler of her calibre, who had been racing among the fastest women in history, such a prolonged absence is a major blow, especially after previous injuries had already forced her to fight her way back.

Tia Jones shares new mindset as she looks ahead to next season

Tia Jones turned professional in January 2019 at just 18, skipping college to pursue a career in track and field. She had already made a name for herself as one of America’s brightest young hurdling talents, setting a high school record of 12.84 seconds in the 100m hurdles as a freshman and winning gold in the event at the 2018 World U20 Championships in Finland.

Over the years, Jones has shown that she has the speed to compete with the best in the world. She made her Diamond League debut in 2022 and continued to make progress in the 100m hurdles. Then, in February 2024, she matched the indoor world record in the 60m hurdles, running 7.67 seconds at the USATF Indoor Championships. It was a huge moment in her career, but the same meet brought another setback. Jones collided with the crash pads after her race and tore her ACL, forcing her to miss the World Indoor Championships and disrupting her outdoor season.

She worked her way back and returned for the US Olympic Track and Field Trials that June, hoping to earn a place on the team for Paris. But after finishing fourth in her heat in 12.90 seconds, her Olympic dream was put on hold. Jones bounced back once again in 2025, running a personal best of 12.19 seconds in the 100m hurdles at Grand Slam Track in Miami. She finished just two hundredths of a second behind Masai Russell. And then came another injury in July 2025.

Still, Jones has not lost sight of what she wants to achieve. Speaking about the lessons she has taken from her latest injury, she reflected on how much it has changed her perspective and the conversations she has had with herself. “I believe I feel like this injury definitely taught me a lot. Like, I had a lot more conversations with myself,” she said.  “Being the woman that I am and the woman that I am growing into being,” she explained, “I definitely feel like I’m going to have a different mindset coming around this next season.”

After everything she has been through, Jones will be hoping that her next chapter is finally about racing, not recovery.