In Praise of Brittney Reese

[donley2]

Not sure there was much (any) discussion about Reese's retirement. I don't really get that into the back and forth GOAT discussions, but Reese's list of accomplishments is absolutely amazing.
An Olympic gold, two silvers and a fourth place. Four World Championship golds. Three world indoor titles. Ranked top in the world by TFN seven different years, plus two 3rds a 7th and a 10th place world ranking. Truly an incredible career.

[gm]

One of my very favorite athletes! Reese was always in the hunt, it seemed, and she could come up with a 7m+ jump almost at will when it was needed, from her first one in 2009 to her Trials winner this year.

[CookyMonzta]

Not sure there was much (any) discussion about Reese's retirement. I don't really get that into the back and forth GOAT discussions, but Reese's list of accomplishments is absolutely amazing.
An Olympic gold, two silvers and a fourth place. Four World Championship golds. Three world indoor titles. Ranked top in the world by TFN seven different years, plus two 3rds a 7th and a 10th place world ranking. Truly an incredible career.

With regard to the GOAT discussion, obviously the top 2 (Heike Drechsler and Jackie Joyner-Kersee) are set in stone. Pending another examination of those who follow, right now Brittney is an easy #3 for me.

[KevinR]

Reese was an outstanding athlete and a consummate competitor. Others may jump further, but it is rare to find someone who always seems at her best when it counts.

[DrJay]

Googled her to look for news and found this, not sure if it made the homepage when it came out or not:
https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/08/...tokyo-olympics

[lonewolf]

I worked most of the world-class woman jumpers in the last half-century and Reese belongs on the All-Time Great podium for both performance and comportment.

[Wiederganger]

With regard to the GOAT discussion, obviously the top 2 (Heike Drechsler and Jackie Joyner-Kersee) are set in stone..

Really? HD yes*, but Reese overtakes JJK as number 2:

JJK V Reese:
Olympics - JJK has 1 gold and 2 bronze, Reese has 1 gold and 2 silvers (and one 5th place)
Worlds - JJK has 2 gold, a 5th & a 6th; Reese has 4 gold and an 8th
World Indoors - JJK 0, Reese has 3 golds
WRs - JJK 1 , Reese 0
No1 Rankings - JJK 3 x number 1 and 2 x number 2; Reese has 7 x number 1 rankings, 2 x number 3, and a 2/3 from this season - watch this space.

How is JJK set in stone above Reese? Reese is clearly above JJK now, she beats her in every dept apart form that one WR? I think JJK's overall haul is clouding their judgement on her LJ alone.

(*HD different as a better Olym record and with 10 x number 1 rankings & 4 x number 2 rankings, plus 3 WRs outdoors, not even mentioning her WRs indoors and over 400 7m+ jumps)

[KevinR]

Yeah, what he said........

[Steele]

Well said, Weider.

[CookyMonzta]

Really? HD yes*, but Reese overtakes JJK as number 2:

JJK V Reese:
Olympics - JJK has 1 gold and 2 bronze, Reese has 1 gold and 2 silvers (and one 5th place)
Worlds - JJK has 2 gold, a 5th & a 6th; Reese has 4 gold and an 8th
World Indoors - JJK 0, Reese has 3 golds
WRs - JJK 1 , Reese 0
No1 Rankings - JJK 3 x number 1 and 2 x number 2; Reese has 7 x number 1 rankings, 2 x number 3, and a 2/3 from this season - watch this space.

How is JJK set in stone above Reese? Reese is clearly above JJK now, she beats her in every dept apart form that one WR? I think JJK's overall haul is clouding their judgement on her LJ alone.

(*HD different as a better Olym record and with 10 x number 1 rankings & 4 x number 2 rankings, plus 3 WRs outdoors, not even mentioning her WRs indoors and over 400 7m+ jumps)

The things that keeps me from putting Brittney above JJK is that (1) JJK went up against the best in the business and cracked her a few times (including an Olympics and TWO World Champs, no less); (2) she jumped at least 24 feet seven times; and (3) has jumped at least 7.25 on 11 occasions (Brittney only twice). Not to mention that Jackie got very close to that WR twice, at 32.

[gh]

In addition to having to go up against Drechsler in her prime, JJK also had fewer WC opportunities, like no indoor in '85 because the meet hadn't been invented yet,, and WC outdoors in '85 and '89 because it wa still on a 4-year cycle. Having said that, I'd also take Reese over JJK, however. But it's very close, all things considered. It's easy to overrate people from the '90s on just because of the number of WC opportunities they have.

[Wiederganger]

In addition to having to go up against Drechsler in her prime, JJK also had fewer WC opportunities, like no indoor in '85 because the meet hadn't been invented yet,, and WC outdoors in '85 and '89 because it wa still on a 4-year cycle. Having said that, I'd also take Reese over JJK, however. But it's very close, all things considered. It's easy to overrate people from the '90s on just because of the number of WC opportunities they have.

Had there been a Worlds in 85, JJK had a chance of a medal - she beat Chistyakova in Zurich and Rome - but no gold. Drechsler would have won, and I think the Soviets would likely have squeezed her out. 89 was another matter though, she was a changed athlete by then. But even with those 2 extra opportunities, she would not have matched Reese's 4 golds.

JJK showed no appetite for World Indoor titles, so that's her fault. And Worlds aside, Reese has a superior Olympic record, and that's the pinnacle and prime event.

[CookyMonzta]

And yet, the question that sticks out like a sore thumb remains: Where are the 24-footers? Since Heike and Jackie retired, only two (Tatyana Kotova 7.42 in 2002, and Tatyana Lebedeva 7.33 in 2004) have broken 24 feet. Add Simagina, Reese and Mihambo, and you have 5 who have jumped at least 7.25 since Sydney 2000. Only 7 (+Kolchanova) have jumped 7.20.

At a time when triple-jumps of 15 meters (starting with Ana Biryukova in 1993), 50 feet and even 51 feet are coming like clockwork, you'd think the 24-foot barrier would have been reached by many on the world circuit and many times over. But unlike in the 1980s and 1990s, it is just not happening, even at the 7.20m mark, where only 2 (again, Reese and Mihambo) have jumped that far in the last decade.

In this event, given how several women (not just Heike and JJK) rewrote the standard in this event, right now performance matters as much as the honors a particular individual has won. The competition was so much more formidable back then, compared to today.

So, forgive me if I'm not yet sold on winning marks in the 6.80-7.19 range (with a big exception for Brittney winning very ugly in 2011), when we've had winners jumping as far as 7.40, with the rest of the top 3 in the same competition farther than 7.10 on more than one occasion. Today's jumpers would have had their lunch money snatched by the jumpers of the 1980s and 1990s. And make no mistake; the competition that Jackie had (even without Heike) was tougher than what Brittney had this past decade and a half, and many of them jumped much farther on the circuit.

Wiederganger: You missed a couple of items in your medal comparison: Jackie finished 5th in Los Angeles 1984, and Brittney failed to qualify at the 2015 World Champs in Beijing.

Be that as it may, the quality of the performances, to go with the competitors, mattered to me more. And those world circuit performances (consider Sestriere 1994) steered me toward keeping Jackie as my #2. If Brittney had cracked a couple of 24-footers along the way (one at a very big meet, not necessarily the Olympics or World Champs), she might have made a better case for me.

[CookyMonzta]

JJK showed no appetite for World Indoor titles, so that's her fault. And Worlds aside, Reese has a superior Olympic record, and that's the pinnacle and prime event.

She was primarily a hurdler throughout her indoor career.

[Steele]

Where are the 24 footers? In the 80s.