Double gold for Harrison in Paris?

Juvaughn Harrison met his goal for this season by winning a silver medal in the high jump at the recent World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. However, Harrison has even loftier targets for the next two seasons. The 24-year-old son of Jamaican parents hopes to win both the high jump and the long jump at the Olympics in Paris, France next year.

In Budapest, the American soared over 2.36 metres to secure the silver, ahead of Qatari hero Mutaz Essa Barshim with the gold going to Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi.

Born to Dennis Blake, the World and Olympic 4x400m medallist, and Georgia Harrison, a Girls’ Champs winner for St Jago High School in the 400m hurdles, Juvaughn revealed his target in an interview just before he left his training base in Louisiana for Budapest.

“To go out there and win and bring home a gold medal, and especially at the Olympics, I want to go out there and win both,” he said.

The combination is rare, but Harrison is living proof that it can be done.

“What makes me stay with it is the fact that I’ve competed in both at a high level. I’ve gone to meets and I’ve jumped 2.33m plus and 8.30m plus,” explained the athlete who has personal bests of 2.36m and 8.47m.

His six NCAA titles are evenly split between the two disciplines, and he has twice done monumental doubles at the USA Championships, clearing 2.33m and spanning 8.27m to win in 2021 after scoring victories with 2.27m and 8.20m in the high and long jump, respectively, in 2019.

In addition, he did a 2.30m/8.45m double for Louisiana State University at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships.

He tried to make both USA teams this year but missed out in the long jump. He placed third but fell short of the World Athletics qualifying standard of 8.25m. That hasn’t daunted him. He knows that some people think the double is difficult.

“People only say that because they’ve never seen it done, and when I’m the first person to do it, people will believe it’s a lot more plausible and it’s something that can be done more frequently and I’m fine being the one changing that narrative,” he confidently asserted.

The 2024 Olympic qualifying standards for Harrison’s events are 2.33m, already attained by the World Championship runner-up, and 8.27m respectively, but now he has his first big medal, no one should doubt him.

The window for attaining the 2024 qualifying standards opened on July 1, 2023. It closes next year on June 30.