‘My entire memo is have fun,’ says Tara Davis-Woodhall, the ‘free-spirited’ US long jump star

Tara Davis-Woodhall, recently crowned the indoor world champion in long jump, is jumping further than ever before ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Skipping down the running track with a cowboy hat on her head and a grin across her face, Tara Davis-Woodhall hardly has the demeanor of an athlete about to win the biggest title of her career. However, when the hat comes off an aura of focus descends upon the American track and field star and she produces a performance that is one of her best to date, a huge jump of more than seven meters to take gold and remain undefeated for the year. That was several weeks ago, at the indoor world championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and with the gold medal came celebrations which were joyous and effervescent: the cowboy hat returned, so too did the smiling and the dancing along the side of the track. It’s hard not to be swept up in Davis-Woodhall’s approach to the long jump, especially when she finds reason to laugh even in the heat of fierce competition. “My entire memo is have fun,” she tells CNN Sport. “I kind of just dally around and be free-spirited. “When I sit down and focus, no one’s home. I’m not that type of an athlete. I need to be all over the place cheering my teammates on – that’s how I’ve always been in this sport, it’s the way to keep me energized and keep me going.”