Tara Davis-Woodhall thought she had won. A 7.16m final jump, celebrations already beginning, a fourth consecutive USATF Outdoor title seemingly secured. Then the protest came, the review followed, and the jump was ruled a foul, ending her 18-match winning streak in the cruelest way possible. As if that wasn’t enough, New York City wasn’t done with her yet.

The 27-year-old took to her Instagram Story to post about her ordeal on her way back home with husband Hunter Woodhall.

“Just to add to this fantastic weekend here in New York City, our flight’s canceled, my bag, broken,” Davis-Woodhall said on her Instagram story.

The Olympic champion walked into New York in the highest of spirits possible. She was the three-time reigning national champion, having won the long-jump gold at the USATF Championships for three years in a row. And to add to that, Tara Davis-Woodhall hadn’t lost a single long-jump meet in three years.

Her streak going into the long-jump final was 18 consecutive victories, with her last loss coming at the 2023 Athletics Championships, where she claimed silver. She added to that with a win at Prefontaine, beating Italy’s Larissa Iapichino by one centimetre, taking the tally up to 18. However, before she competed in the long jump, Davis Woodhall ran the 100m hurdles.

It’s a competition she’s rediscovered this season and won one of her two meets in the discipline. Her only loss was to world-record chaser and reigning Olympic champion Masai Russell. The 27-year-old long-jumper finished third in the national championships with Alia Armstrong and Alaysha Johnson beating her.

The long jump, however, seemed like an inevitable result with everyone else basically competing for second and third. And that was the way it went, as in the final round, the Olympic champ leapt to a 7.16m jump, which effectively sealed the deal.

She celebrated her jump because it meant her fourth consecutive USATF Outdoor championship title. Then the drama began as a protest was filed and officials carefully examined Davis-Woodhall’s jump.

It saw the 27-year-old drop down the rankings, with the review determining that she had fouled. Despite the heartbreaking finish and the frustrating trip home, Davis-Woodhall refused to let the result define her. Instead, the Olympic champion reflected on the performance, the challenge of juggling two events, and why she still walked away proud of what she produced in New York.

Tara Davis-Woodhall opens up on her first loss in 3 years

For three years, any long-jump meet that had Tara Davis-Woodhall’s name meant that the result was only going one way. That was a streak that spanned world championships, one Olympic Games and a catalogue of other meets including the USATF Championships. Going into the 2026 edition, Davis-Woodhall had won three consecutive meets, and all signs pointed to a fourth.

It went exactly as expected despite stern competition from Alyssa Jones. The reigning NCAA champion leapt to 6.92m and then 6.96m, to put the pressure on. Davis-Woodhall responded, starting with a 6.88, 6.90 and then a 7.16m, with her last jump sealing the gold medal, before the protest and the subsequent foul ruling.

It knocked the reigning Olympic champion down two places, with NCAA champion Alyssa Jones taking gold after a 6.96m leap, while second went to Monae Nichols (6.92m). Tara Davis-Woodhall’s second-best attempt, 6.90m, was only good enough for third, and it meant her first loss in three years.

“Seven-sixteen final jump. It was a very tough competition,” Davis-Woodhall said post-race via DyeStat. “Coming off two races, I didn’t have the freshest legs I could have hoped for. That’s what makes competition.

“I’ve always been inspired to double up. It just gives me a different challenge to my inner Tara, which I thought today was just that. The hurdles, I have to walk into some other part of my brain. And I got to do that again in the final jump.”

Losing the title on review was a bitter way for a three-year unbeaten streak to end. The broken luggage and cancelled flight only added to a weekend Tara Davis-Woodhall will want to forget. Even so, the Olympic champion made it clear that she is taking far more from the way she challenged herself across two events than from the medal she left New York without.