Of all the former and current Razorbacks competing in the Olympics, Jaydon Hibbert may have the best chance of returning home from Paris with a gold medal.
As a freshman at Arkansas last year, the Jamaican star took home the triple jump title of every collegiate meet he entered, broke both the indoor and outdoor NCAA records in the event and won the Bowerman Award, which is essentially the track and field equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.
It was no surprise when Hibbert gave up his amateur status and turned pro in January. A few months later, in June, he jumped a then-world best 17.75 meters to qualify for the Summer Olympics. Despite all this success though, it’s Hibbert’s unconventional mindset that makes him stand out.
Jaydon Hibbert – Not So Serious
Earlier this summer, Jaydon Hibbert was on the Hog Pod with Bo Mattingly and made an eye-catching statement about his approach to the event that’s taken him all over the world.
“I don’t know,” Hibbert said. “I don’t really take it (the triple jump) so… Well, I take it seriously, right? Obviously, it’s my job right now. But I don’t really think about it like that… No, I’m just all for the vibes, thinking about when my next travel is, my next photoshoot, whenever I get to dress up. I’m just for the vibes. It’s really not that serious.”
Not that serious?
Hibbert is an athlete who is competing on the biggest stage in the world and being talked about as a threat to break the triple jump world record. Hibbert’s proclaimed lack of seriousness with the triple jump is a far cry from the sport-first mentality that we often see from elite athletes.
So what might cause an athlete of this magnitude to feel this way? His experience at last year’s Budapest Relays may give us a clue.
Adversity a Year Before the Olympics
The sun came out on a crisp day in August in Budapest, Hungary, site of the 2023 World Championships. It was a little hot, an unseasonable 91 degrees. The sky was clear, making it even hotter for the athletes, but eliminating the chance for any weather delay for rain. For Hibbert though, there was a storm brewing.
The 18-year-old had just two days earlier set the best qualifying mark in the championship and seemed primed to launch himself onto the world stage. The day of the final, he went through his pre-jump ritual, readied himself for his first jump and the fame that was sure to come, and then took off down the track toward the sand pit 130 feet away. Before he even began his jump motion, Hibbert knew something was wrong. In fact, he sensed it that morning when he woke up.
“(The vibe) was off,” Hibbert said. “I got injured without even getting to jump. Qualified first in the qualifiers, but on my first jump, I didn’t get to complete the jump because I got a hamstring strain.”
Hibbert, who saw his new fame dissolve in an instant, pulled his hamstring and wasn’t able to compete in the final. Adding to the pain were the end results after the competition. Hibbert’s qualifying mark of 17.70m was the best of the event, including the finals. If he had been able to equal that in the finals, he would have been a world champion, but due to the injury he was forced to withdraw and went home only with sorrow.
In his Bowerman Award acceptance speech, Hibbert gave a little insight into how he was feeling that day.
“Coach Travis (Geopfert), thanks for dealing with me,” Hibbert told the Arkansas assistant coach, who has since been hired as the head track coach at Kansas State. “Thanks for mending my overthinking. Thanks for always reminding me that even if I’m injured today I’ll be ready for the season. Thanks for not freaking out at Budapest when I was freaking out.”
Hibbert explained his “overthinking” more in his interview on the Hog Pod. He relates how in training he hit the mark he was supposed to hit for the day, but just barely surpassed it. He was so upset by his performance that he called Geopfert.
“‘Coach, I had a poor day. I had a bad day,’” Hibbert recalled. “What did I do? … 5.03, that’s so bad. Usually I go like 5.30, 5.40, and it was 5.03. I did so bad today. And he’s like, ‘…sometimes you still have to grind. Not every day is going to be a good day.”
So how did Hibbert respond? He went home, thought about it, prayed about it and then went to sleep. Hibbert seems to have taken that coaching to heart. He ended his Bowerman speech this winter with this: “Don’t stay up worrying while God’s up working.”
How Serious is the Former Arkansas Star
Unlike many high-caliber athletes, Jaydon Hibbert doesn’t seem caught up in the win-at-all-costs mentality. When Bo Mattingly went to interview him for the Hog Pod, he found Hibbert eating a Snickers candy bar and the following interaction ensued:
Mattingly: “I’m sitting here with one of the best athletes in the world, and you’re eating a Snickers. That is not what I expected to walk into.”
Hibbert: “Wait, are we recording?”
Mattingly: “Is it good, the Snickers? Is that your go-to candy?”
Hibbert: “Not really a go-to. I’m a real Hershey’s white chocolate, dark chocolate guy.”
Mattingly: “Yeah? How much candy do you eat or allow yourself to eat?”
Hibbert: “Any. I’m young. I would get over it.”
Hibbert’s interests also show up in his instagram in posts like this:
Before you start believing that Hibbert is now only superficial and just concerned about his drip, consider this: In that same interview on the Hog Pod, Hibbert said he’s really just a homebody. When asked about his favorite meal, he lists the sandwich he always gets at the Jerry & Gene Jones Student-Athlete Success Center on campus – a chicken and bacon on flatbread, hardly the sentiments of a prima donna.
In addition to his travel and fashion videos, he also puts out videos of him working out and training:
Hibbert also seems to care more about the impact he has on his community than his ability to compete. When asked about Arkansas great and Olympic champion Mike Conley, whose records Hibbert broke, Hibbert talked more about Conley’s impact than his athletic achievements – something he has tried to emulate.
“I don’t really care about how far you jump,” Hibbert said. “It’s more about how you are impacting society.”
Hibbert’s newfound wisdom also might be a reflection on his youngest years when times were tougher. He grew up in Arnett Gardens Neighborhood in Kingston, Jamaica, an area thought to be ruled more by its gangs/mafia than by the police trying to protect it.
“I’ve seen what God has done when things are at the bottom,” Hibbert said. “Now I’m at the top. I have nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about.”
Hibbert Competing in Paris Olympics
For 10 days this summer, Jaydon Hibbert owned the longest triple jump in the world for 2024.
His jump of 17.75 meters, which he notched on June 1, would have won five of the last 10 Olympics. However, two men in the European Championships bettered that mark later in the month.
Pedro Pablo Pichardo of Portugal jumped an 18.04 and held a brief lead until minutes later, when Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun of Spain jumped 18.18. That is just .09 meters short of the world record. Those two will surely be Hibbert’s stiffest competition in Paris and they don’t seem to share his mindset about competing.
“It was a very long season. I didn’t get any rest. In the middle of it, I had the world championship. From then on, I have not stopped,” Diaz Fortun said after setting the Junior’s World Championship record in 2018. “You got to train hard and give your best.”
Pichardo echoed much of that same sentiment.
“I started when I was six years old…and since then I’ve always been very disciplined…focused, training day to day and I think it paid off,” Pichardo said in 2015. “When it comes to jumping, it’s not about age, but about doing a good job.”
Pichardo and Diaz Fortun seem far more focused on putting their sport above everything else in their life. That sentiment might come from their background. Both Pichardo and Diaz Fortun are originally from Cuba. After a time competing for Cuba, they both deserted their communist homeland to seek better and less restricted opportunities elsewhere. It’s possible that has made them more honed in on their sport as they likely would have had a much harder time trying to defect without it.
Hibbert, on the other hand, grew up in Jamaica and trained his freshman year at the University of Arkansas. His rough life early may have been similar to his opponents, but he never needed to rely on his sport to get him away from the country in which he was born – and for which he still competes.
It may give him a leg up of sorts in the Olympics. There seems to be a rivalry between Pichardo and Diaz Fortun. After the European Championships early this summer, Pichardo went immediately to instagram to ask European Athletics, World Athletics and the officials involved to investigate Fortun’s jump of 18.18 and why the electronic device was turned off for that jump. While his rivals are concerned with each other, Hibbert can take a more relaxed approach.
“I just want to go to the Eiffel Tower,” Hibbert said. “I’m going to jump. I’m going to give my best.
But I’m not going to sit down every day and think about, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to Paris. I need to go jump. I need to go beat those guys.’”
The Olympics are already underway, but the triple jump competition doesn’t start until the qualification round Wednesday. It will be streamed on Peacock and NBColympics.com at 12:10 p.m. CT. The finals are scheduled for 1:10 p.m. CT Friday and will be streamed on the same services.
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