Countless hours of practicing and living at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center led up to Rio for Jeff Henderson - not to mention months of healthy eating.
“I want some burger and fries man, I haven't had a burger and fries in so long,” Henderson said after finishing the long jump. “It’s probably been seven months. It paid off as you can see.”
Henderson scored a gold medal on his final jump of the night Saturday, with a distance of 27 feet, six inches.
Thousands of miles away in Arkansas his family watched his gold medal-winning jump.
As his family cheered, Henderson’s biggest fan, his mom, was silent.
She is bedridden, in the final stages of Alzheimer’s.
“My mama’s my golden star. She pushes me through everything I got to do,” he said.
Local
Perhaps she was just the push Jeff needed to leap to the USA team's first win in the men's long jump in eight years.
“This is for my country, this is for my mom, my dad, this is for God and God put me in this position to do well,” he said.
While Henderson’s ready to head home he hasn’t forgotten the man in Chula Vista who helped him get here.
“My coach is not just my coach,” Henderson said. “He’s more than that. He’s like a friend, a step dad.”
Henderson’s advice to other training athletes is to “just keep fighting. Don't let opportunities slip away from you. Stay humble. Just keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting.”
Henderson fought to take home the win. Even if it was just by a centimeter, it comes with an immeasurable amount of joy.
