By Gary Campbell

Dwight Phillips, a former track and field team member, long-jumped his way to Olympic Gold in Athens in August, besting the international competition and winning the only medal for an ASU student or alum competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The Sun Devil star and U.S. champion in the event recorded a mark of 8.59 meters or 28-2 1/4 feet. The jump, his first in the finals, was just 1 centimeter shy of his personal best.

“ Everyone at Arizona State is extremely happy for Dwight,” says Greg Kraft, the head coach of the ASU track and field team, who coached Phillips in college as well as professionally. “He has put a lot of hard work and effort into this sport, and this is the fruition of many years of work behind him. Being the favorite makes it even more special, since the favorites sometimes react poorly to that situation, and that obviously elevated his game. I don’t think there was a meet this year that he took more than three jumps and the Olympics were no different. He is by far the most dominant jumper in the world, as well as the most deserving athlete to win.”

Phillips, who still trains at the ASU track, owned the six longest jumps in the world this year heading into the Summer Games.

Phillips is the seventh Sun Devil male track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, and the ninth in the history of the men’s and women’s program combined. The 2003 indoor and outdoor world champion, Phillips is the first to win a gold in any jumping event for ASU, and the third field athlete in as many Summer Games to capture gold, following Nick Hysong in 2000. The Sun Devils’ gold medalists include Henry Carr (200 and 4x400) and Ulis Williams (4x400) in 1964, Ron Freeman (4x400) in 1968, Herman Frazier (4x400) in 1976, Ron Brown (4x100) and Ria Stalman (discus for Netherlands) in 1984 and Maicel Malone (4x400) in 1996. Overall, Phillips’ gold is the 24th in the history of ASU athletics and the 54th total medal earned all-time by a former Sun Devil.

When the Olympic Games opened Aug. 13 in Athens, seven current ASU athletes and three current coaches, along with numerous ASU alumni, took part in the festivities. In all, the teams from 11 different countries in the games, which ran Aug. 13-29, had ties to ASU.

Other ASU representatives included ASU Diving Coach Mark Bradshaw (Finland) and sophomore diver Joona Puhakka (Finland); ASU Swimming Coach Mike Chasson (Egypt) and swimmers senior Petra Banovic (Croatia), senior Ahmed Hussein (Egypt), sophomore David Kolozar (Hungary ), junior Ágnes Kovács (Hungary), junior Florencia Szigeti (Argentina) and Gavin Meadows (Great Britian); track and field athletes sophomore sprinter Lewis Banda (Zimbabwe) and ASU alumnus and Jamaican 4x400 team member Michael Campbell; ASU Softball Coach Linda Wells and former ASU catcher Stacy Farnworth for the Greek National Softball team; and 1996 graduate Sargis Sargsian participated for Armenia in tennis.

Gary Campbell is an associate editor for ASU Insight.

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Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images

Phillips owned the six longest jumps in the world going into the 2004 Summer Olympics.

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