A view of the Olympic rings as the sun sets at the Laura Cross Country Ski and Biathlon Center during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
Beacon High School graduate Jasmine Simmons had a decorated scholastic career, winning state championships in both gymnastics and track and field.
Now, she could be going to the Olympics in the long jump
Simmons qualified for the USA Track & Field Olympic Team Trials, which take place in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, July 1. She will attempt to challenge for a top-three finish, which would solidify a spot in the upcoming Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Simmons reached the trial field with a leap of 21 feet, 3 ¼ inches. But to reach the top three, Beacon coach Jim Henry said, she will have to “jump about a foot further.”
It doesn’t surprise Henry that she’s made it this far.
“She was very fast,” Henry remembered. “The biggest thing she had was body control. She was one of the easiest athletes to coach. I could give her two or three changes and she could instantly do them. It kind of spoils you as a coach to have someone that physically talented.”
After Beacon, Simmons attended Barton Community College in Kansas before transferring to the University of Oklahoma, where she competed in track and field. She won a 2005 state gymnastics championship in the vault, before suffering a right knee injury, switching to track and field and winning the 2007 state title in the triple jump.
Simmons competed for the Lakeland/Walter Panas gymnastics team because Beacon didn’t have a gymnastics team. During the course of her rehabilitation, she did some running and found that she liked track and field.
“We turned her into a long jumper because the knee she injured was her right one,” Henry said. “She jumped off her left leg.”
In an interview with the Journal while she was still a gymnast in 2005, Simmons said, “I’d like to compete in the Olympics. To get there, it would take more dedication, a lot of hard work and no more fear.
The rest is history. And perhaps there is more to come.
A.J. Martelli: amartelli@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4836, Twitter: @AJM_PoJoSports