Jackie Edwards a five time Olympian represented the Bahamas in the long jump in the 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing) Olympic Games. In 2003, Edwards was ranked 5th in the world in the long jump. Other athletic accolades include her induction into Stanford University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Twenty years after her graduation she still ranks as the school’s indoor and outdoor record holder. Edwards retired from professional competition in 2009 due to an achilles tendon tear. In her post competitive career she is enjoying being a partner in Urban Safari Design.
Edwards shares insights that enabled her career longevity which includes an inner motivation to push herself to improve as an athlete, good health, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. This is part two of a three part interview.
SZ: After turning pro in 1992 what new responsibilities entered your life? Were you surprised by any of the changes from amateur to professional?
JE: There were some surprises working with sponsors. Oakley sunglasses was a sponsor. My government (Bahamas) began paying me in 1998, so there was period of time when my government wasn’t paying me to represent them. I had a manager and I felt that I didn’t want to let him down. During my pro career I had sponsorship with Mizuno and the last nine years of my career Puma was a sponsor. Because I was receiving money or equipment I felt like I needed to earn the right to have all these things.
That act of turning pro wasn’t hard because in track it’s not like competing in the NBA or NFL where people are ooing and awing about the income an athlete is making, or the performances of the athlete. The most difficult part was time management. In college athletes have a structured schedule year to year. Coaches are telling the athlete what to do, when to do it. There are specific practice times. A professional track athlete is in control of their schedule. What meets to enter, arranging transportation to get there, paying for entry fees, all the details. In college you don’t need to think about these details you just show up.
SZ: In college you are told to meet at a certain spot at a certain time, transportation and the details are in place.
JE: Yeah. As a pro there were responsibilities and arrangements I never had to think about before.
SZ: Were there obligations to appear at special sponsor events and make yourself visible?
JE: To some degree yes. I didn’t realize that sponsors paid such close attention to the athletes. For example I like to wear the same spikes when I jump. I don’t care if I have new one’s when the one’s I am wearing are comfortable. At the time I was sponsored by Mizuno and I remember receiving a piece of mail from them telling me that I was to stop wearing the dirty spikes I had been competing in because it was the reason they gave me new ones. At the time I didn’t realize sponsors cared so much what I had on my foot.
SZ: How would they even notice it?
JE: That’s what I was thinking. Like who’s watching? When you jump your shoes get dirty. Unlike a sprinter whose shoes are going to look pretty clean for a long time. A long jumper shoes get dirty very quickly. Mizuno was clear that they didn’t like that I was walking around on these dirty spikes. When you are just concerned about performing you are not thinking about all that stuff.
SZ: You competed in the Olympics for the Bahamas in the long jump in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008. Each Olympic has its own energy. Was there one Olympic year that was more meaningful to you?
JE: Each Olympic is definitely different in it’s own way. One of the things that always stood out for me was the way the torch was lit. In 1992 (Barcelona) the archer stood in the infield and shot the arrow over the torch from the center of the field. I couldn’t believe he got it right because it was so far away. We had been hearing up to the moment of the torch lighting in practice he had kept missing. So I was thinking what if this dude misses? We were all standing there waiting and then he was successful. He got it right. In 1996 (Atlanta) Muhammad Ali lit the torch. He has Parkinson’s disease so his hand was really shaking. It almost looked like the flame was going to burn him because he couldn’t get the thing lit.
Aside from the torches being lit the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics was the most special for me. It was my best finish, 6th place. Leading up to the Olympics in April during my first outdoor meet which was held at Stanford University I was competing in the triple jump for training purposes. During one of my jumps my fibula head popped out of my left knee. It was like this loud cracking noise and I thought I had broken my shin. I’d seen that happen so I was afraid to look because the shin would protrude through the skin. When I did finally look down I was relieved to see my leg fully intact. I went to stand up and I realized the noise that I had heard was my knee popping out. It required a chiropractor to put it back into place. It’s not an injury that requires surgery. I didn’t get my knee put back into place for ten days. I was basically dragging my leg around because my chiropractor wasn’t trained to make this type of adjustment.
I had flown back to Texas and was at the track talking with my coach and this guy who created this chiropractic adjustment just happened to show up at the track. My coach spotted him and said this guy can fix my knee. He put my knee back in five minutes. It was very painful but he put it back in place. But through the injury I had done damage to the area around my knee. I decided to compete in a meet ten days later and had a really good jump probably 2-3 inches off the qualifying mark for the Olympics. But I still needed to qualify and I think I did more damage than good by competing in that meet because afterwards my knee just went. I competed poorly for the next 2-3 months and I hadn’t yet qualified for the Olympics. It came down to the last meet that I was going to try and jump in to qualify. I needed to jump 21’ 10” to qualify. On my last jump of the last meet to quality I did it. To this day I don’t know how it happened.
SZ: This jump qualified you for the 2000 (Sydney) Olympics.
JE: Yes, and so my preparation for that Olympic Game was not what it should have been because my leg was not whole. It was the Olympics where I went in with the least amount of physical preparation because from when I qualified the Olympics were only a month away. But my country put me on the team and I went. The thing that helped me was I had just completed my Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. Through-out the period of time leading up to the Olympics I couldn’t train and my body was failing me. I prepared by visualizing. I pictured myself performing the jumps even though I couldn’t physically do them. I visualized myself mentally executing a certain technical performance and when I arrived in Sydney my coach specially told me, “Jackie you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to jump some super outstanding jump to make the finals.” There is a set mark and if a jumper reaches that mark no matter how many jumpers reach it, you qualify for the final. We knew what the mark was and my coach said, “You can jump that. All you have to do is do what you have been doing.” I knew I was really technically sound just from my mental training not off of anything physical. Sure enough I went in and did what I knew I could do on the very first jump. On that jump I qualified for the finals.
Unfortunately between the qualifying round and the finals there is a day in between and I got sick with the worst cold I’ve ever had. The day of the finals my coach said, “You’re pretty much going to have to get whatever jump you are going to get right away because you will have no more energy.” There were twelve jumpers in the final. Jumpers take three jumps and then the top eight out of those twelve get another three jumps. I just hung onto what my coach told me and I put everything into my first jump and that was enough to get me into the top eight.
Next week Jackie talks about visualization, new technologies that helped extend her career, and her plans for the future.
*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article may also be read @ www.examiner.com
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