Brianne Theisen-Eaton thought her coaches were crazy. Working with Tom Tellez, who coached Olympic champion long jumper Carl Lewis, Theisen-Eaton has been practicing a “slow to fast” philosophy for her long jump, something completely alien to her.
“You only really need to be fast in the last three steps, the last eight meters,” said Theisen-Eaton, the defending world silver medalist in the heptathlon and pentathlon. Previously, Theisen-Eaton and her husband, defending Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the decathlon Ashton Eaton, would “drive out of the back super hard, working down the whole runway.”
The two athletes spent the whole training camp down in Santa Barbara, California, with Coach Harry Marra trying to convince Theisen-Eaton to slow down during her jumps.
“Each time I would drive out of the back, and they were like, ‘Too fast,’ and I was like, ‘You guys are out of your mind,” Theisen-Eaton said.
She said that during her first jump at the Oregon Twilight Meet, the first time she had used the slow to fast technique in competition, she did not feel very happy with it. Then, she turned around and saw that she had jumped 21 feet, 6 3/4 inches, less than an inch away from her personal record.
In her second jump, Theisen-Eaton jumped of 21-8 1/4, a personal best. She decided not to jump again.
“That was kind of the goal, to do two jumps and then stop,” Theisen-Eaton said.
George Fox’s Asia Greene came in second with 18-5 1/4, Southwest Oregon Community College’s Talisha Dozier came in third with 17-11 3/4 and Oregon’s Madelayne Varela came in fourth with 17-6 1/4.
Looking forward, Theisen-Eaton is focusing her energy on the 2016 Olympics.
“2016 is my Olympics,” she said. “If you don’t do it here, it’s going to be really hard to do it when you’re 31 years old in 2020. So, this is your time. I think the pressure is more. You have to get it done in these next two years, or you kind of missed your opportunity.”
During her time at Oregon, Theisen-Eaton was a four-time NCAA outdoor champion. She won the heptathlon in 2009, 2010 and 2012, and was part of the 4×400-meter relay team in 2010.
