University of Georgia Athletics
After Big 2016, Orji Wants More
January 21, 2017 | Track & Field
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Keturah Orji will compete in the triple jump this weekend during the Aggie Invitational at Texas A&M. The last time the Georgia star was in action in her main event was last August, during the Rio Olympics, when she broke her own American record.
Think about that for a second or two.
The last time the 20-year-old Georgia junior — who already has two NCAA outdoor national championships and one indoor title — did a triple jump that counted was in front of tens of thousands of people inside Rio's Olympic Stadium. It was Sunday, Aug. 14, and Orji, having narrowly made the finals as the final qualifier, did the best jump of her life.
Not THE jump of her life, because that hasn't happened yet, but the best so far.
On her first and best attempt of the finals — best ever, that is — Orji jumped 14.71 meters (48 feet, 3 1/4 inches) to improve on the American record (47 feet, 8 inches) she already owned. For a long time during the finals Orji's jump was in the top three, but at the very end she had to settle for fourth place, missing a medal by three centimeters.
Three centimeters: slightly more than the width of a quarter. Coming that close to a medal would keep a lot of folks up at night, but not Orji. She said the fact that it was the best jump she'd ever done mattered more than where she placed.
"After that jump I was very happy with my performance," said Orji, who also placed fourth in the 2016 World Indoor Championships. "To me, I didn't care that I didn't get a medal. As long as I'm getting better, that's what matters to me.
Still, a medal would have been nice.
"[Laughs] Yes, it would have been nice!" she acknowledged. "But it's my first Olympics and I'm 20, right?"
And that right there kind of nails it. A 5-foot-5 academic All-American and maybe the nicest person you'll ever meet, Orji's still only just getting started — both at Georgia and internationally. The 2016 Olympics, she and Georgia coach Petros Kyprianou certainly hope, was the first of multiple bids for gold, silver or bronze.
"She's moving really quickly and she's very hungry," Kyprianou said. "That's where it starts. She got the chance to compete against the best in the world and beat most of them, all but three, and she realized, hey, I belong here and I'm one of them."
As years go, 2016 was a pretty spectacular one for Orji. She won her first NCAA indoor triple jump title and repeated as the NCAA outdoor champion. She easily won the U.S. Olympic Trials to punch her ticket to Rio and then, on the biggest stage in her sport, she more than held own.
"I feel very experienced going into collegiate meets now because I've been in the Olympic Trials and I've been in the Olympics and a feel like I've seen the best of the best, so I shouldn't be scared of the NCAAs anymore," Orji said.
Scared? Her Georgia teammate and fellow triple jumper, Aliyah Johnson, said when they first met a few years ago she was scared of Orji.
"I met Keturah in 2014, we met at the World Juniors in Eugene [Ore.], and I didn't talk to her much then — actually I was quite scared of her," Johnson said. "We joke about this now: I didn't want to talk to you because you looked scary. To get to know her and have her as a training partner is really great."
Orji will compete in the triple jump for the first time this indoor season Saturday, but she was in action earlier this month in a meet at Clemson. She won the long jump, an event she's eager to improve in this year, and she ran the 60-meter dash, primarily as a way of working on her speed for the triple and long jumps.
Along with helping the third-ranked Lady Bulldogs have success indoors and outdoors this year, and defending her own NCAA titles, Orji is looking to the 2017 World Championships this summer. Like 2016, this year will be another long, challenging year. Orji is eager to become more consistent with her jumping and hopefully cross the 15-meter barrier for the first time in the triple jump.
One thing you can count is Orji not being satisfied by the things she's done to date, even if she's still a little stunned by them.
"I sometimes think at different times, I can't believe I did that," she said. "But I don't want to get caught up in things because I feel like I'll be content with where I am and not get better, so I try not to think about it too much.
"But there are always those little moments where I'm like, wow, I really did that."
Who knows what new achievements she'll be able to think back on this time next year.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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