Who is this versatile athlete?
Tianna, born August 30, 1985 in Ohio 34 years ago, is an American Olympic and World Champion in the sport of track and field. As one of the few athletes who participate in both track and field events, Bartoletta specializes in the long jump and shorter of the sprints, the 100m.
High school career
The now 5′ 6″ tall athlete, Tianna Bee started what was to become a successful and lush career at her Elyria high school in Ohio where she was a stand-out in track and field and also a member of the school’s basketball team. She copped many titles including several high school state championships, including seven individual titles in the 100m, long jump and 4x100m relay. The high school star is one of three persons in Ohio’s history to have won four events at the state Championships two consecutive seasons, after Jesse Owens 1932–33 and Susan Nash 1983–84. This multi-Talent athlete is also blessed with brains, was the recipient of, 1) four years on her high school distinguished Honor Roll, and 2) named athlete of the year for Gatorade Ohio High School Girl track and field in 2003. Though she had a busy schedule as a junior, she made time to give back to the younger ones by getting involved with the ‘Ohio Reads program’ that involves elementary students before moving on to bigger things as a college student.
College career
At the University of Tennessee, her brilliance continues at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) level while pursuing higher education. Bartoletta wasted no time to get into the new chapter of her journey as her achievements increased, winning indoor and outdoor tiles in record time for her alma mater. As a top performer in the 60m, long jump, triple jump, 55m and 200m, it is fair to say that she is multi-talented for sure. Of course, her academics was not left behind as she was an honor roll student once more balancing sports and academics at high standard and freshman field event athlete of the year winning many titles at various competitions.
Professional Career – Olympics Glory
At the highest level of her career, Bartoletta’s hard work continues to be fruitful every time she competes. In 2012 the Olympian earned a fourth place finish in an electrifying 100m final running a super time of 10.85 seconds where the top six finishers all ran dub-11 seconds. She came back days later with an explosive lead off for her world record-winning 4×100m relay team copping gold with her teammates for her country in record time of 40.82 seconds at the 2012 Olympic games in London, England. Four years later she was in immaculate form as she produce a massive performance destroying the field landing herself gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016 in the long jump. If that was not enough, Ms Bartoletta repeated what she did at the London games, copping gold once more in the 4x100m relay for her country, after a dramatic opening round which almost kept them out of the final.
World Championships glory
Is she super on that run way or what? Is she among the horizontal jump Queens or what? World championships 2005 and 2015 she was unstoppable and was not to be denied on both occasions as she also mine gold in the long jump in Helsinki and Beijing respectively. The podium which seem to be her place, saw her was once again featured in the top three receiving the bronze at the 2017 games in London.
Indoors Glory
Tianna is just as dominant indoors as she is outdoors. She also stamped her class indoors winning gold in the long jump at the 2006 Moscow games. Multi-talented indeed, and a quick starter in the 100m, indoors is very much her place and she showed why, winning bronze in the 60m at the 2012 and 2014 games.
The resilient woman she is, just kept going and producing impressive performances at various other athletics competitions including the World Relays, Continental Cup, the Diamond League, among other competitions for herself and country.
In recent dialogue with Tianna, I asked her what if anything specific she would like to be highlighted in this article, and she said, “it is always a pleasure to line up against the Jamaican team because they raise the level of competition to a much higher place.” She is right, she has met the best of the Jamaicans at the highest level of competition, and she would know this for sure.
The vibrant three times Olympic gold medalist Tianna, now turns her attention towards representing her country at the #Tokyo2020 (2021) Olympics to add more glory to her legacy without a doubt. She is among the A-list of competitors to top the podium once more, and Just to note, she is one of the three women to have won the long jump for her country since the 1948 Olympics. We have seen what she can do based on her track and field resume, after-all, she is the defending Olympic champion, and to be more convincing, she has been on the podium fourteen (14) times for her country in this era.
Career Events and Personal Best (PB)!
| Event | Time |
| 60 | 7.01 |
| 100m | 10.78 |
| 150m | 17.64 |
| 200m | 22.37 |
| Long Jump | 7.17 |
| 4x100m Relay | 40.82 |
| 4x200m Relay | 1:28.77 |
References
https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/tianna-bartoletta-14315831
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