IN A COLLEGIATE career that saw her win 7 NCAA titles indoors and out for the Florida Gators, Jasmine Moore has grown quite comfortable with success. She was no stranger to it. She transferred to Gainesville after starting at Georgia, where she earned All-America honors in both of the horizontal jumps as a frosh. Before that she had been a prep All-America (and a U.S. Ranker) for Lake Ridge High School in Mansfield, Texas.
In her final NCAA Indoor, she set Collegiate Records in both events, hitting 23-¾ (7.03) and 49-7¼ (15.12) in Albuquerque. Following the ’23 outdoor meet she announced that she would jump into the bigger pond, forgoing her final season at Florida to compete professionally for Puma.
The transition to the pros proved to be a challenge: she uses the word “humbling.” She made the Budapest ’23 finals in both events, finishing 10th in the long jump and 11th in the triple. But victory on the circuit proved to be hard to come by. No matter. She and coach Nic Petersen processed what they had learned in Hungary, as well as the lessons from the Tokyo Games, where she didn’t get out of qualifying for the triple jump. In Paris, she put it all together, capturing bronze in the triple jump and coming back 5 days later to score another bronze in the long jump, making her the first American woman to win medals in both.
We caught up with the 23-year-old as she relaxed in her Florida home with two of her best friends, a Doberman named Ginger and a Cane Corso named Duke. She says, “I enjoy hanging out with my dogs. Just honestly chilling. I love hanging out with my family and friends. Those are the most important people in my life. So just being with people that fill me up is my favorite thing to do. (Continued below)
T&FN: Your success at the Olympics, that just had to have been mind blowing. How long did it take you to come back down to earth?
Moore: Definitely a little bit. The rest of my season, it was like a month after the Olympics, and that was really challenging for me to come back down. When you’re on such a high and then to still compete was really challenging.
Now, every single day, I feel very blessed and very much in awe of my performance, what I accomplished. Afterwards, I went to Michigan to see my whole family, went to Texas, St. Louis, traveled around to see my loved ones and I got to celebrate with them as well.
T&FN: You spend your career training hard in hopes of getting on that podium. Once you’re there, does it feel the way you thought it would?
Moore: Honestly, it felt better, especially for the long jump. They played the national anthem and it was just awesome. And it made me very emotional because everyone dreams of that one day, but then to finally like get to experience it is just such an overwhelming, such a joyous moment.
T&FN: Looking back, what do you think was the key to you doing so well?
Moore: Definitely my faith and the people that I surround myself with, my coaches and my family, so many people believing in me and just honestly learning to believe in myself and to just stay mentally strong. The whole time I competed, I just tried to stay calm. And I just kept repeating, “Lord, I trust you,” throughout the whole competition to keep me sane just because it is such a nerve-wracking experience. I think that’s what really helped me. And of course, you know, I train hard. I train hard and I work hard. I put the work in, but believing in yourself and having that extra support definitely helps out a lot.
T&FN: Not your first Olympics, but a very, very different experience than you had in Tokyo. What did you learn from it all?
Moore: That I’m capable of more than I think or that I give myself credit for sometimes. I learned that not everything has to be perfect in order for you to perform well. Like, in Paris, I was so busy, just like all the athletes, traveling to get to practice and then the food not always being the best. So not everything has to be so perfect in order for you to still do well. In college, I was like, everything has to be in the same order, the same routine. Then also, you know, my legs being tired, or me being tired from doing two events and then the break in between kind of being short — it definitely is a mindset in order to recover, so it’s good to know my body can recover fast as well.
T&FN: In the Olympic long jump after round 1, you were in the lead. That’s got to be exciting, but it’s also got to be scary, I imagine. How do you control your emotions and focus on the job?
Moore: Definitely. Just really staying focused and walking in a competition and not getting distracted, of course it’s hard. Like whenever you see some of your friends competing the same time that you are, it’s hard to not cheer for them or not to see how they’re doing. I was focusing on myself. And then, I just kept repeating, “Lord, I trust you,” the whole competition. And that kind of keeps me in control of my own competition. (Continued below)
T&FN: Is there anything that you would have done differently in Paris?
Moore: I think I handled everything pretty well. I was on top of everything I needed to be on top of. I feel like my confidence was slowly building throughout the days in Paris. There’s things that I would have done differently this season, but in Paris, I thought I did it well.
T&FN: Just to follow up on that, what would you have done differently this season?
Moore: I guess confidence in myself. I was coming off of an injury in my senior year of college. Sometimes that mindset of having an injury is kind of scary. You think about it a lot, even when you might be healed. So just learning to let that go. And then, you know, I’m still learning, with my first year being a professional and just what events I should do when. Indoors, I chose not to do long jump. I had regretted that for a while, but I’m learning to let certain things go and just to move on. And then if a meet does not go well, you know, throw it away and keep it pushing. So short-term memory was something that I learned this year.
T&FN: Of the two events, which do you have more fun with?
Moore: I think long jump’s fun just because you’re flying throughout the air. It’s just like running and jumping. But triple jump’s fun too because whenever you do triple jump well, I think it’s harder, so it’s a lot more rewarding. I really don’t have a favorite. I think they’re both fun. And right now, since I’m doing well in both and they’re pretty equal, I enjoy them both.
T&FN: How do they complement each other in training? Is there one that you compromise on perhaps to do good in the other? Or is it just a happy mix?
Moore: It’s a happy mix. I spend equal time on both of them a week. I split my week up and I do half long, half triple. I think my speed, pushing my speed in the triple jump has helped. And that’s just something I was working on with the long jump, I just run. And so bringing that approach over to the triple jump has helped. And then just working on my last phase, long jumping off my opposite leg has helped in the triple jump. So they do go hand-in-hand.
T&FN: Do you ever see a day that you might decide to concentrate on just one?
Moore: I think whenever I get older and my body can’t handle it as well, I’ll decide to just do one, but until then I’m going to keep trying to do both as long as my body will allow.
T&FN: in terms of meet schedules, does it make any difference which event comes first? Is it easier if long jump comes before triple or not?
Moore: I prefer for long jump to go before triple, but like this year in the Trials it was triple jump first and at the Olympics it was triple jump first. So it’s good to know that I can do both no matter which one goes first, but I always prefer long jump first.
T&FN: Tell me about your coach Nic Petersen and how your coaching relationship has evolved as you’ve grown as a human being.
Moore: When I first got to Florida, I think I was kind of in denial about the whole situation of transferring. I mean, whenever you go to college, you never expect to not graduate where you started. That whole situation at first, I was just like, “Oh, you know, a new coach, blah, blah, blah.” But over the years, coach Nic and I have become really close and he really does understand me and has allowed me to voice my opinions. Our relationship has grown a lot. I’ve spent more time with him and even if it’s just hanging out in his office before practice, I try to do that because it’s important for him to know me outside of the sport and understand like me as a person and vice versa. So I really do appreciate him and his whole family. Honestly, his wife and his boys, they have become like my family as well.
T&FN: Nic and coach Mike Holloway were calling you “157” a few years ago [a reference to her goals of 15m and 7m]. Now that you hit those marks, have they changed the numbers?
Moore: No… Well, the goal is to hopefully get back out there. I didn’t hit those goals this year, so I definitely think about those numbers every day. But coach Holloway calls me “Coach Moore” a lot. I dressed up as him two years ago. So I get called Coach Moore, but the numbers are still the goal.
T&FN: What was the biggest challenge in going from being the ruling force in the NCAA to international competition where you have had to take more bruises?
Moore: Yeah, it’s definitely learning how to lose. That’s not something I was ever used to, especially, you know, in high school, I had a really good career and same at college. And then you become professional and you know, everyone’s good. And so I mean, all year, I was like, I had not won a track meet. And I think I won one long jump competition. I won one triple jump competition. So it was just really humbling, you know?
T&FN: Does it challenge your confidence?
Moore: At first, I would say it did. But going forward, my goal is to not let it knock me down or waver my confidence in myself, because I know what I’m capable of and I have a better understanding of what it takes now.
T&FN: After a competition, when you communicate with coach Petersen, what’s your arrangement in terms of how long does he have to wait before he points out things you can improve? Does he do it right away or does he have to wait a day or so?
Moore: This year, it was like, he would ask me, “What do you think is wrong?” And then I’ll say it, or don’t say what’s wrong. That’s certainly how it works. I’m getting better at understanding what feels wrong with my body and trying to correct myself before he even has to.
T&FN: Have you ever have any second thoughts this year about, passing up that final season of collegiate eligibility?
Moore: No. I feel like it was time for me. I feel like it was a lot of pressure being in the NCAA, just having to be perfect. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to have like a bad meet, which was just really hard on me my senior year. So I have no regrets. And then obviously this year going the way it did made it so worth it and made it very validating.
T&FN: Looking ahead to 2025, what are you aiming at?
Moore: I’m hoping to win more meets. That’s my goal. Improve some of my numbers and my marks, but overall just to have fun and really enjoy it. I am so blessed that this is my job and I get to travel and do what I love doing. So it’s definitely to enjoy and just to compete even harder and to just improve and continue to get better in both.
T&FN: There have been some new initiatives in the sport this year from a marketing perspective – Grand Slam Track, the Athlos NYC meet — but neither of those have opened their doors to field eventers. Are they missing an opportunity?
Moore: I think especially with the horizontal jumps, there’s a big market to do that. And I think there’s a lot of potential, but you know, it has to start somewhere. So although those events aren’t in there right now, I believe in the future they will be. And I’m happy that the sport is continuing to grow and to get better with more opportunities for athletes. So hopefully in the future, there’ll be something for field event athletes to participate in as well.
T&FN: In some events — the pole vault stands out — people are always talking about how the event is such a fraternity and they’re such buddies and they hang out off the track too. What are the horizontal events like socially?
Moore: They’re definitely not like those. I mean, of course at a track meet everyone’s friendly, but I don’t think that’s how everyone necessarily feels towards each other, you know? No one’s going to be rude to you. Half of the time, everyone speaks their language of their own culture. So if they are saying mean things to me, I just don’t understand [laughs].
T&FN: You’ve been at this game for a while now, but you’re still just 23. How much longer do you think you want to do this?
Moore: I don’t know, honestly. I enjoy it, so I’ll just keep going until my body says no.
T&FN: Both your parents were tracksters. Was track kind of always in the background at your house? Or do you feel that you came upon it independently?
Moore: Well, starting off, my parents definitely forced me to do it. I did not like doing it, especially growing up in Texas. It’s so hot in the summer. I just did not want to be out there running in the summertime, but once that I found jumping, that’s when I started to really fall for the sport and it’s just gotten better and better. And my family, they support me so much and they’re at every meet. My whole family was in Paris cheering me on. It’s definitely a family thing now. My parents have always enjoyed the sport. So I always just feel so grateful and like blessed to have so many people rooting for me and praying over me and wishing me the best.
