University of Georgia Athletics
Townsend At Home On The Runway
May 27, 2025 | Track & Field, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Before she was hopping, stepping and jumping down the runway as one of the best young triple jumpers in the country, Georgia's Skylynn Townsend spent much of her childhood sprinting down the vault runway as a gymnast.
"I just got thrown into the triple a little bit my freshman year (of high school). I was a gymnast for 7-10 years, so it just kind of came naturally to me," Townsend, a freshman from Prosper, Texas, said. "Just like being on the runway — we have vault in gymnastics, so that was familiar. The phases and the rhythm and the timing, it just came easy to me because it's what I've been doing all my life."
As a gymnast, Townsend's best events were bars, vault and floor. "I was more of a power gymnast, and I had a lot of spring. Artistry was not my forte," she said.
She gave up gymnastics in 2019 and then found herself at home not doing much during the pandemic. That's when her mom, Carla, encouraged her to give track a shot. Townsend took to it quickly.
Townsend not only got comfortable doing the triple and long jumps, she got very good very quickly. She was already highly accomplished before arriving at Georgia. She was the 2023-24 Gatorade Player of the Year for Texas girls track and field; she won the USA Track and Field Under-20 Championships in the triple jump, as well as the Nike Outdoor Nationals, and was a two-time state champion in the triple and long jump. Her jump of 44 feet, 2.5 inches to win the USATF U20 title was the fifth-longest ever in high school history.
Elite athletic ability runs in the family. Townsend's father, Deshea, was a three-time All-SEC cornerback at Alabama in the mid-1990s, and later won two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers during his long NFL career. He's been coaching ever since and is currently an assistant with the Detroit Lions.
Townsend's longest jump of the outdoor season, a personal-best 44 feet, 3.5 inches, ranks ninth in the country this season. It's also the best mark by a freshman. The jump was good enough for a third-place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships earlier this month and was a marked improvement over her 43-10 at the SEC Indoor meet, where she placed seventh.
While the NCAA title in the triple jump will likely come down to the two women who finished ahead of her at the SEC meet, Texas A&M's Winny Bii and Oklahoma's Agur Dwol, who rank first and second in the nation by a wide margin, Townsend, if she advances out of this week's NCAA East Regionals, should be in a good position to score some points for the Bulldogs as they pursue the NCAA title.
The Georgia women's only NCAA team title came at the 2018 Indoors, where another great jumper, Bulldog legend Keturah Orji, won the triple jump. It was one of seven NCAA titles in the triple that Orji, the 2018 Bowerman Award winner, captured during her career. Orji also won the 2018 Outdoor long jump title.
At the 2024 U.S Olympic Team Trials, Townsend and Orji both made the finals in the triple jump. While Orji went on to place second and make her third Olympic team — she finished ninth in her final meet before retiring — Townsend, fresh out of high school, placed 10th at the Trials with a jump of 42-9.75.
"I just watched how she worked the runway during warmups and watched how she competed," Townsend said of competing alongside Orji. "She's a fierce competitor."
Townsend still has dreams of joining Orji as a Bulldog who competes in the triple jump in the Olympics one day. The Los Angeles Games in 2028 are now only three years away.
"It's something I think about. Being in L.A. in 2028 is definitely in my goal book, is definitely written down in my journal somewhere," she said. "But right now, I'm just taking this step by step."
Regardless of the runway, that's the best way to go.
Â
Staff Writer
Before she was hopping, stepping and jumping down the runway as one of the best young triple jumpers in the country, Georgia's Skylynn Townsend spent much of her childhood sprinting down the vault runway as a gymnast.
"I just got thrown into the triple a little bit my freshman year (of high school). I was a gymnast for 7-10 years, so it just kind of came naturally to me," Townsend, a freshman from Prosper, Texas, said. "Just like being on the runway — we have vault in gymnastics, so that was familiar. The phases and the rhythm and the timing, it just came easy to me because it's what I've been doing all my life."
As a gymnast, Townsend's best events were bars, vault and floor. "I was more of a power gymnast, and I had a lot of spring. Artistry was not my forte," she said.
She gave up gymnastics in 2019 and then found herself at home not doing much during the pandemic. That's when her mom, Carla, encouraged her to give track a shot. Townsend took to it quickly.
Townsend not only got comfortable doing the triple and long jumps, she got very good very quickly. She was already highly accomplished before arriving at Georgia. She was the 2023-24 Gatorade Player of the Year for Texas girls track and field; she won the USA Track and Field Under-20 Championships in the triple jump, as well as the Nike Outdoor Nationals, and was a two-time state champion in the triple and long jump. Her jump of 44 feet, 2.5 inches to win the USATF U20 title was the fifth-longest ever in high school history.
Elite athletic ability runs in the family. Townsend's father, Deshea, was a three-time All-SEC cornerback at Alabama in the mid-1990s, and later won two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers during his long NFL career. He's been coaching ever since and is currently an assistant with the Detroit Lions.
Townsend's longest jump of the outdoor season, a personal-best 44 feet, 3.5 inches, ranks ninth in the country this season. It's also the best mark by a freshman. The jump was good enough for a third-place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships earlier this month and was a marked improvement over her 43-10 at the SEC Indoor meet, where she placed seventh.
While the NCAA title in the triple jump will likely come down to the two women who finished ahead of her at the SEC meet, Texas A&M's Winny Bii and Oklahoma's Agur Dwol, who rank first and second in the nation by a wide margin, Townsend, if she advances out of this week's NCAA East Regionals, should be in a good position to score some points for the Bulldogs as they pursue the NCAA title.
The Georgia women's only NCAA team title came at the 2018 Indoors, where another great jumper, Bulldog legend Keturah Orji, won the triple jump. It was one of seven NCAA titles in the triple that Orji, the 2018 Bowerman Award winner, captured during her career. Orji also won the 2018 Outdoor long jump title.
At the 2024 U.S Olympic Team Trials, Townsend and Orji both made the finals in the triple jump. While Orji went on to place second and make her third Olympic team — she finished ninth in her final meet before retiring — Townsend, fresh out of high school, placed 10th at the Trials with a jump of 42-9.75.
"I just watched how she worked the runway during warmups and watched how she competed," Townsend said of competing alongside Orji. "She's a fierce competitor."
Townsend still has dreams of joining Orji as a Bulldog who competes in the triple jump in the Olympics one day. The Los Angeles Games in 2028 are now only three years away.
"It's something I think about. Being in L.A. in 2028 is definitely in my goal book, is definitely written down in my journal somewhere," she said. "But right now, I'm just taking this step by step."
Regardless of the runway, that's the best way to go.
Â
Assistant Sports Communications Director 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.
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