What really defines a champion? For Tara Davis-Woodhall, that search for the answer has led her back to a place many thought she’d left behind years ago, and it might just be the move that takes her long jump to another level. The 27-year-old track and field superstar won’t get much time to catch her breath this weekend. She’ll first take on the 100m hurdles on Saturday before returning less than 24 hours later to chase the long jump title.

To some, juggling two events at a national championship may seem like an unnecessary challenge. To Davis-Woodhall, it’s all part of the bigger picture. “Hurdles and long jump, they just go hand-in-hand, so it doesn’t feel like I’m really doing anything different,” she explained. “I just feel like I’m perfecting my long jump craft by also getting faster.” The Olympic champion believes the return to hurdles has sharpened parts of her game that years of long jumping alone no longer could.

“Going to hurdles, we’re finding more speed, more stability, and kind of just fearlessness – hurdles you have to be fearless,” she added in her interview with USATF. That fearlessness, she admits, has become one of the biggest takeaways from rediscovering an event she hadn’t competed in for five years. And guess what? Davis-Woodhall’s decision also carries a touch of history.

It’s been more than 30 years since anyone pulled off the hurdles-long jump double at the US Championships. The last to do it? Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1994. This weekend, Tara Davis-Woodhall has a chance to join that exclusive company.

Joyner-Kersee built her legacy by refusing to be limited to one event. At the 1987 World Championships in Rome, she won gold in both the heptathlon and the long jump, setting championship records that still stand today. Her 7,128-point heptathlon remains a World Championships record, while her 7.36-meter leap still stands as the championship mark in the long jump.

Is Davis-Woodhall chasing those records? Perhaps. But more than chasing numbers, she is now embracing a similar mindset- using multiple events to become a more complete athlete.

Who is Tara Davis-Woodhall’s biggest inspiration behind her hurdles return?

For Tara Davis-Woodhall, winning Olympic gold wasn’t the finish line. She reached the top of the long jump, added a world title to her resume, but one chapter of her career always felt unfinished. Years after stepping away from the hurdles, she’s giving the event another shot. As she prepares to compete in both the 100m hurdles and long jump at the USATF Outdoor Championships, her return has a story of its own.

Long before she became an Olympic champion, Davis-Woodhall was thriving across multiple events. At Agoura High School in California, she won state titles in the long jump, triple jump, and 100m hurdles before carrying that versatility into college. But with the Tokyo Olympics approaching and an injury threatening her chances, she made the difficult decision to focus solely on the long jump.

Was it the right call? Well, yes indeed. It proved to be the right move. Davis-Woodhall went from a sixth-place finish at Tokyo 2020 to winning World Championship silver in 2023, Olympic gold in Paris, and the world title in 2025. Yet, despite all that success, the hurdles never left her mind.

“I never was able to say goodbye to hurdles,” Davis-Woodhall admitted after running a personal-best 12.47 seconds at the 2026 LA Grand Prix. She revealed that earlier attempts to return in 2022 and 2023 came too soon, as she wasn’t mentally ready.

Even with years of elite competition behind her, Davis-Woodhall knew she couldn’t simply jump back into an event she hadn’t raced seriously in five years. So, she reached out to someone who understood it better than almost anyone else – Team USA hurdling star and reigning Olympic champion Masai Russell.

“She’s so good. She’s defying all freaking odds in the hurdles,” Davis-Woodhall said while praising her teammate. “She’s allowing hurdlers to go faster and break that stigma of not being able to run 11.9. We’re gonna see something crazy in there real soon. I just want to be like her.”

Before the Ward Haylett Invitational earlier this season, Davis-Woodhall reached out to Russell for a quick refresher. “As soon as I started hurdling, I asked, ‘So what do you do out the blocks again?’ And she just said, ‘Push, push, push.'” It was simple advice, but exactly what she needed as she found her rhythm in an event she hadn’t raced seriously in years.

There have been plenty of challenges in her career. But now, with the USATF Championships around the corner, Davis-Woodhall has another chance to show how far she’s come. Whether she leaves New York with one title or two remains to be seen, but her return to the hurdles has already proved one thing: even after reaching the top, she’s still willing to challenge herself in search of something greater.