Jarrion Lawson (born May 6, 1994) is an American sprinter and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er. He placed third in the men's long jump at the 2012 World Junior Championships. Competing for the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (ori ...

, he won five individual

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

championship titles and one relay title between 2014 and 2016; he won three events (the

100 meters The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...

200 meters The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

and long jump) at the 2016 NCAA outdoor championships, a triple previously accomplished only by

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifet ...

Career

Lawson took up track and field at a young age, but was not initially a particularly promising age group athlete; he made his breakthrough during his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

and

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

years at

Liberty-Eylau High School Liberty-Eylau High School is a public high school located in Texarkana, Texas, United States near the unincorporated town of Eylau and classified as a 4A school by the UIL. It is part of the Liberty-Eylau Independent School District located in s ...

Texarkana, Texas Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2020 census. ...

. In addition to track, he played on Liberty-Eylau's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

teams. In June 2012, shortly after graduating from Liberty-Eylau, he won both the

and the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

at the national junior championships and was selected to represent the United States in both events at the

IAAF World Junior Championships The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year ...

in Barcelona. Lawson won bronze in the long jump in Barcelona, jumping 7.64 m (25 ft in) on his best attempt; in the triple jump he was eliminated in the qualifying round. After graduating from high school Lawson attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and represented the

in collegiate competition. As a freshman, he placed fourth in the long jump with a personal best 7.92 m (26 ft 0 in) at the 2013 NCAA indoor championships and helped the Razorbacks win the indoor team title. Outdoors, he won the long jump at the West Regional, but was only 14th at the NCAA meet. He had to drop triple jumping due to knee problems, but started dabbling in the sprints instead; at the NCAA championships he ran the second leg on the Razorbacks'

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

team, which placed fifth. Lawson won his first individual NCAA title as a sophomore at the 2014 indoor meet, jumping a personal best 8.39 m (27 ft in) at the altitude of

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

; he won by more than a foot. Outdoors, he failed to qualify for the NCAA meet individually, but placed second behind Jeff Henderson at the

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

two weeks later. In 2015 Lawson became an individual-event doubler again, as he started running the individual

; he broke the Arkansas school record in the NCAA championship semi-finals with 10.04 (+1.7 m/s), and placed third with a wind-aided 9.90 (+2.7 m/s) in the final. The Razorbacks won the 4 × 100 m relay. In the long jump, he jumped a season best 8.27 m (27 ft in) at the NCAA indoor championships and a personal outdoor best 8.34 m (27 ft in) at the outdoor championships, but lost to Florida's

Marquis Dendy Marquis Dendy (born November 17, 1992) is an American track and field athlete, primarily known for horizontal jumping events. He is the 2015 National Champion in the Long Jump. His winning jump, of , though wind aided at +3.7mps, his first jum ...

both times. Lawson regained the NCAA indoor long jump title as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in 2016, winning with a last-round jump of 7.95 m (26 ft 1 in); in addition, he placed fifth in the

60 meters 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...

with a personal best 6.60 seconds. Outdoors, Lawson took up the

for the first time; at the SEC outdoor championships he won the long jump, placed fourth in the 100 meters and was sixth in the 200 meters. His 200-meter times dropped from meet to meet, and he placed second in his heat with a personal best 20.17 (+1.5 m/s) at the West Regionals; he qualified for the NCAA championships in all three events. At the 2016 NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene Lawson won the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the long jump, a triple previously achieved only by

eighty years earlier. His individual meet score of 31.5 points, including partial credit for Arkansas' third place in the 4 × 100 m relay, was also the best since Owens. In the long jump, Lawson took the lead in round four and secured first place with his fifth-round leap of 8.15 m (26 ft 9 in). He narrowly defeated Tennessee's Christian Coleman in both sprints, running 10.22 (-2.3 m/s) in the 100 meters and 20.19 (-0.2 m/s) in the longer race; LSU's

Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake Nethaneel Joseph Mitchell-Blake (born 2 April 1994, London) is a British sprinter who specialises in the 200 metres. He was the 2013 European Junior Champion and his personal best of 19.95 seconds ranks him as the second-fastest in Britain of a ...

led the 200-meter semi-finals ahead of Lawson, but lost his chances after suffering a cramp in the relay.

Professional career

Lawson turned professional after the 2016 collegiate season and signed an endorsement deal with ASICS. At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials he broke his personal best in the long jump, jumping 8.58 m (28 ft in); he placed a close second behind Jeff Henderson and qualified for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. He also qualified for the Trials final in the 100 meters, but placed seventh in 10.07 (+1.6 m/s) and failed to make the team in that event. In 2018, Lawson tested positive for a metabolite of the banned anabolic steroid,

trenbolone Trenbolone is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) of the nandrolone group which itself was never marketed. Trenbolone ester prodrugs, including trenbolone acetate (brand names Finajet, Finaplix, others) and trenbolone hexahydrobenzylcarbonate ...

, and was banned for 4 years. After a failed appeal of the ban to the AIU, Lawson took has case to

CAS Cas may refer to: * Caș, a type of cheese made in Romania * ' (1886–) Czech magazine associated with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * '' Čas'' (19 April 1945–February 1948), the official, daily newspaper of the Democratic Party of Slovakia * ''CA ...

, where his ban was overturned on the grounds that the positive test was due to tainted beef. He was then able to return to competition in 2020.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Jarrion 1994 births Living people American male sprinters American male long jumpers African-American male track and field athletes Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Arkansas Razorbacks men's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Sportspeople from Texarkana, Texas Track and field athletes from Texas USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners 21st-century African-American sportspeople