PARIS, France. - Tara Davis-Woodhall, an assistant coach under new K-State Wildcat track and field coach Travis Geopfert, walked away with Olympic gold on Thursday in the long jump, winning with a bound of roughly 23 feet, 4 inches (7.1 meters).
Davis-Woodhall was just announced as an assistant coach for the Wildcats back on Aug. 2nd.
“I’m thrilled to have Tara joining us at K-State. To say that she brings the energy is an understatement,” Geopfert said per a release. “I’ve loved coaching this young woman for the last three years and to bring her elite level experience to Manhattan is absolutely invaluable. She knows what it takes to be great, and she also fully understands the challenges of what life is like as both a student-athlete and as a professional athlete. Her mentorship of these young student-athletes is going to expedite their careers to an elite level in dramatic fashion. So excited to have TDW and her husband Hunter joining us in Manhattan!”
According to Kansas State Athletics, she graduated in 2021 from the University of Texas. She swept the 2020-21 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the long jump and was the Big 12 Outdoor Champion.
Before Texas, Davis-Woodhall spent her freshman year at Georgia where she was named the 2018 SEC Indoor Women’s Co-Freshman Field Athlete of the Year. All told she was a five-time First-Team All-American, with four honors in the long jump and one in the 60-meter hurdles.
Her husband Hunter Woodhall is also in attendance in Paris, is a 2024 U.S. Paralympian set for his third Olympic games in the 100- and 400-meter dash.