For JuVaughn Harrison, it’s always come down to choices. At the 2017 Alabama 6A Championships as a senior at Columbia High, he won both hurdles (14.55 & 37.63), the long jump (23-½/7.02) and high jump (6-10/2.08 after clearing 7-2/2.18 earlier in the season). Back then the headlines raved about JuVaughn Blake, who soon signed with LSU (and ended up rooming with one Mondo Duplantis). The next year he won the World Junior (U20) bronze in the high jump.
The son of Jamaican 4×4 bronze medalist Dennis Blake and Alabama A&M Hall of Famer Georgia Harrison, he chose to go by his mother’s name after his first year in Baton Rouge. He explains, “My mom was the one who took care of me. She was my primary caregiver. I lived with my mom. I figured since she was the one who put in all the hard work raising me, I should have her name. Simple as that.”
He chose to leave the hurdles behind and focus on the jumps with coach Todd Lane; it seemed a natural decision, given his nickname, “Mr. Jumps.” As he improved, he kept being told by outsiders he would have to choose which jump. He refused. In 2019 he became the first man to win NCAA titles in both and said, “My goal is to be great in both and to not have to choose.” (Continued below)
In 2021, after the…
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