Tara Davis-Woodhall wins Olympic long jump gold medal

The former Agoura High star completes a difficult road to the top of the Olympic medal podium.

SAINT-DENIS, France – She stood at the top of the Stade de France long jump runway as a post card Parisian day slipped into an electric Olympic evening, the place she was always supposed to be.

A place Tara Davis-Woodhall, a prisoner of her own darkness, did not, could not envision only a few years ago.

“I honestly didn’t make myself to make it to 24, 25,” she said.

Yet here was Davis-Woodhall shining, embracing the glare of the world’s biggest stage Tuesday night. She took off down the runway and into flight, sailing, soaring really, above her demons, her the doubters, free from the depression and fear kept her from being her true self, that held her in the darkness.

She finally touched down to a roar that told her  – before any formal measurement would  – that she had landed in the lead of the Olympic Games long jump competition.

Davis-Woodhall, prep superstar, Olympic lock at 17, 18, written off at 19, blasted into first place in the second of eight rounds and never reliqueshed it.

At 25, Davis-Woodhall was Olympic champion.

Davis-Woodhall, the former Agoura High School and Texas star, won with a jump of 23-feet, 3 1/2 inches (7.10 meters).

She was joined on the podium by Germany’s Malaika Mihambo, the defending Olympic champion, at 22-10 3/4 (6.98), and U.S. teammate Jasmine Moore at 22-10 (6.96).

Davis-Woodhall couldn’t watch as Mihambo, next to last in the jumping order, took her final attempt.

Again the crowd told her.

Mihambo had messed up her steps and ran through the pit. Davis-Woodhall covered her face in disbelief.