‘Mr. Jumps’ JuVaughn Harrison eyes Olympic leap in not one athletics event but two - again

Track and field athletics runs (no, jumps!) in JuVaughn Harrison’s family. And since he started the sport, there’s never been the focus on just a single event, as is the case with most top-tier track stars.

“I did four different events in high school,” the reigning men's world silver medallist in high jump tells Olympics.com. “High jump, long jump, 300 hurdles, and 110 hurdles. Having to manage all four made it difficult.”

But it came naturally, too, Harrison says, through his mother and godmother, who both ran track. The sport was “ingrained” in JuVaughn from a young age, he explains: “Track is just something my family does. My whole family did it.”

Harrison competed in both the high jump and long jump at the Olympic Summer Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021, making the final in each event. Last month the American captured the silver in high jump at the World Athletics Championships, with his eye on Paris 2024.

Nicknamed “Mr. Jumps,” Harrison wants to go to Paris is both disciplines. And not just go... go golden.

“I want to go out there and bring home the gold,” he says. “In both.”

JuVaughn Harrison: ‘You don’t want to over-focus’

Harrison’s four-event spread was whittled down when he joined the team at Louisiana State University, but he and LSU coach Todd Lane decided to take the road less travelled when choosing to compete in both high and long jumps.

“We have this thing where we believe that you don't want to over-focus on something,” says Harrison. “If you focus too much on it, then it just becomes too strenuous on you. We needed something that was going to give me a mental break.”

That “break” was long jump, with high jump still being Harrison’s premier event, but the approach worked: JuVaughn won NCAA collegiate titles for LSU in both events in 2019 and then again in 2021, and left the U.S. Olympic Trials in June of 2021 with not just one ticket to Tokyo but two.

It marked the first time since 1912 that an American man had qualified for the Olympics in both events, when the legendary Jim Thorpe did so. Thorpe won gold in both the decathlon and pentathlon at Stockholm 1912, while also finishing fourth in the high jump and seventh in long.

“I didn't really know much about him until I saw that statistic,” Harrison says of Thorpe, who was a trailblazing American Indian athlete that went on to have careers in both pro (American) football and baseball. “It was a good feeling to know that I follow somebody like that. I was glad I was the one to do it.”

JuVaughn on Mondo Duplantis: ‘That’s my guy’

The LSU Tigers have produced a plethora of top-tier track athletes, and Harrison’s stay in Baton Rouge included a future Olympic and world champion – and world record-holder – as a roommate: Mondo Duplantis.

“That’s my guy,” laughs Harrison when asked about his memories of Duplantis. “Everybody else can be like, ‘Oh my god! That’s Mondo Duplantis!’ But I’m always going to treat him like he’s my roommate. He’s my friend. I’m happy to see him doing what I know he can do. I’m always cheering him on.”

The greatness around Harrison has continued to inspire, from family, to LSU, to Team USA, which captured 29 medals (including 12 golds) at Worlds last month to rank first among participating nations.

“It's like a family... I take a lot of inspiration from them,” Harrison says of his U.S. teammates. “We always push each other whether we're in different events. If we see each other slacking off, we'll be like, ‘You gotta lock in and do it right.’ We always motivate each other and make sure we're each doing what we're supposed to do.”

In 2021, Harrison became the first man to go above 2.30m in high jump while also jumping at least 8.40m in long. He matched his career-best in Budapest, clearing 2.36m, but says he is never thinking about results; it’s always about the process.

“I focus on each competition as it comes on the day,” says Harrison. “I don't really have a certain mark. I know what I'll have to do if I want to win, but I don't ever go out with a certain mark like, ‘This is the mark that I need to get here.’”

Paris 2024: ‘I plan on doing both’

While Harrison didn’t have the international standard in long jump to compete at 2023 World Championships, he is confident that the tweaks he and his team are making to that event will punch him a double Olympic ticket again next year.

“I plan on doing both in Paris,” he confirms.

Adding: “We did change a few things [in long jump] and it's taken me a while to adjust to it, but I'll be pretty well prepared for next year's Olympics. I did a lot of work during the season to iron out the technical aspect of my approach. We'll be fine.”

Balance is important for Harrison, who says only his strength training crosses over to both events. Otherwise, he’s working separate practices and separate skillsets to excel.

“It's just really making sure that you give them both equal time and opportunity in practice,” he explains. “We have a rotating schedule where my focus is more on one one week and more on another the next week. We make sure to balance it out so that each discipline is getting enough time.”

Harrison’s silver in Budapest split the famous shared-gold duo from Tokyo: He finished just behind Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, but edged out Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim.

But with any success, he’s taking it in stride.

“It’s always great to beat someone of that caliber,” Harrison says of Barshim. “It was a good feeling beating Mutaz, but now I have to go out there and beat Tamberi. I don’t let it get to my head.”