Walter Davis

Bio

As the veteran in a young triple jump field at 2011 USA Outdoor Championships, Davis finished third to claim a spot on his fifth World Outdoors team. His best long jump leap at the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships of 8.24 meters/27-0.50 equaled his personal best set, in 2003. Davis faced quite a challenge on his way to the gold medal at the 2006 World Indoor Championships. He believed he scored well on his first attempt in the final and was surprised to learn that it had only been recorded as a leap of 17.42m/57-2. Davis questioned the result and during the third round the score was changed to the winning distance of 17.73m/58-2, which remains his career best effort. On his first and winning jump being changed during the third round: "They put 17.30m on the first one because they saw a mark they forgot to erase from earlier," he said. "One guy measured from the actual mark for me and they told me they checked it on television and switched it to make it right." In addition to his indoor success in 2006, Davis won the USA Outdoor Championships with the farthest triple jump in the world that outdoor season of 17.71m/58-1. A national champion in both horizontal jumps, Davis didn’t start out in track & field. He was an all-state basketball player who decided to try track his junior year of high school…the first U.S. Olympian from Barton County Community College in any sport…Davis made the 2000 Olympic roster in both the LJ & TJ but opted to compete only in the TJ at Sydney…native of Leonville, Louisiana…Davis posted five of the top six triple jumps by Americans in 2002…LSU’s men’s team visited the White House after winning the 2002 NCAA Outdoor crown. Davis presented President Bush with an LSU warm-up.