Olympic Long Jump Champion Tara Davis-Woodhall Suffers Concussion in Head-On Crash
Long jump Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall sustained a severe concussion in a head-on car crash on her way to a training session last week. Her participation in the inaugural Ultimate Championships in Budapest, running from 11 to 13 September, is now uncertain.
Written by James Carter
(1h ago)
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What happened?
US long jump Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall suffered a severe concussion in a head-on car crash on a car park last week, writing off both vehicles involved.
Why it matters
Her participation in the inaugural Ultimate Championships in Budapest (11–13 September), which carries a total prize fund of ten million US dollars, is now in doubt.
What’s next?
Rival Malaika Mihambo, who was pushed to silver by Davis-Woodhall at the 2024 Paris Olympics, will also be absent from Budapest after sustaining a muscle tear.
Tara Davis-Woodhall, the 27-year-old American who won long jump gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has disclosed that she suffered a severe concussion after a head-on car crash last week while travelling to a training session. The US athlete revealed the incident during a media round ahead of the inaugural Ultimate Championships, explaining that a vehicle had turned into her lane on a car park, causing a frontal collision at approximately 20 miles per hour (32 km/h). Both cars were written off.
Davis-Woodhall said: "I feel lucky and blessed that I'm still alive and didn't sustain life-threatening injuries." She added that while her physical condition has since improved, the psychological toll has been considerable: "Psychologically, something is really going on there."
The timing has compounded the damage. Davis-Woodhall said the crash had occurred at the peak of her preparations — describing herself as faster and stronger than at any previous point in her career — ahead of an event she had evidently targeted with particular intent. The Ultimate Championships, held in Budapest from 11 to 13 September, is the first edition of the competition and distributes a total prize fund of ten million US dollars (more than 8.6 million euros), with only the leading names in global athletics invited to compete. Whether Davis-Woodhall will be fit to start remains unresolved.
Her husband, para-athlete Hunter Woodhall (27), was filmed comforting her in footage she posted to Instagram alongside photographs showing minor abrasions on her arm and images of the heavily damaged vehicle.
Davis-Woodhall also holds the 2025 World Athletics Championships title in Tokyo. In Budapest she would in any case have faced an already-weakened long jump field: Malaika Mihambo of Germany, who was pushed to the silver medal position at the Paris Games, has been ruled out of the event after sustaining a muscle tear.
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Source: BILD