Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall explains tears during national anthem: ‘I do believe in my country’

TOKYO — Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall smiled through the tears when they played the U.S. national anthem to celebrate her gold medal at the world track and field championships.

The newly crowned champion is well aware she represents a country going through a difficult time. She refuses to give up on that country, which helped explain the emotions that poured out Monday night in Tokyo.

“I do believe in my country. I believe we’re having a really hard time right now,” Davis-Woodhall said. “We just need someone positive out there to give an outlook of ‘We’re all in this together. We’re all human.’ We all have one heart, one brain, and if we use this together, we can be unstoppable.

“I do believe we can do this.”

The 26-year-old California native jumped 7.13 meters (23 feet, 4 3/4 inches) to stack the world title on top of the Olympic title she won last year.

Both those golds were products of a fire lit two years ago, when she won a silver medal at worlds in Budapest – a medal she called “exciting and fun, but it hurt at the same time.”

Both she and her husband, Paralympic gold-medal sprinter Hunter Woodhall, rededicated themselves to better training, better eating, a more intentional approach to everything they did.

After the payoff at the Olympics last year, doors started opening.

It’s no exaggeration to say Woodhall-Davis – a vibrant personality with more than 1 million Instagram followers – almost singlehandedly pushed the all-women’s track circuit, Athlos, to add her event to its program.

She got a call last year from Athlos founder Alexis Ohanian, who invited her to New York to watch the debut of the series, when it was for track events only.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going, unless there’s field events and I’m competing,’” Davis-Woodhall said.

Ohanian listened. Next month, Davis-Woodhall and others will be jumping in Times Square.

A thrill, she says, though it will be hard to beat what she experienced half a world from home Monday with the gold medal hanging from her neck.

“With all the things that are going on in the United States, to be able to represent for African-American women and just human beings is an honor for me,” she said. “To go out there and wear ‘USA’ on my chest, it feels so amazing. I’ll never, ever take it for granted.”