Gulfport’s Brittney Reese closes her 4th and final Olympics with her 3rd career medal
Gulfport native Brittney Reese goes out with silver as she finishes her Olympic career in Tokyo.
In her fourth and final Olympics, Reese claimed the silver medal in the finals of the women’s long jump on Tuesday.
It was the third Olympic medal of her career and her second silver — nine years after winning her lone gold medal in London.
Germany’s Malaika Mihambo registered 7 meters (22.97) on her sixth and final jump to earn the gold medal, pushing Reese out of the top spot.
Reese jumped 6.84 meters in her final leap to come up just shy of standing atop the podium.
Even though she fell short of her third gold medal, Reese felt confident afterward that she was still the greatest female long jumper of all time.
“You know, if I was on the track side of the sport ... I’d be the Usain Bolt of long jump. But just being on the field events side, you know, it just doesn’t get the attention that it deserves,” Reese told NPR. “But I was not placed here for that. I was not placed here for the attention, I was placed here to inspire.”
Reese, a former Ole Miss and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout, surged into the lead on her third jump of 6.97 meters (22.87 feet).
She battled Nigeria’s Ese Brume, who hit 6.97 meters on her opening jump, for much of the competition.
After Brume, who won the bronze, took a slight lead with a second-best jump of 6.88, Reese moved into first again when she reached 6.95 meters on her fifth leap.
Reese won gold in London in 2012 with a jump of 7.12 meters.
In the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she earned the silver when her teammate, Tianna Bartoletta, barely edged Reese out for the top spot with a jump of 7.17 meters. Reese’s best leap was 7.15.
Reese easily earned a bid to the 2021 Games by finishing first in the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, with a jump of 7.13 meters (23.39 feet).
This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 10:27 PM.
