Tyra Gittens (born 6 June 1998) is an Olympic athlete from

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. Gittens set 6 national records for Trinidad and Tobago indoor records in Pentathlon 4746 points, high jump 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in), and long jump 6.68 m (21 ft 11 in), Trinidad and Tobago outdoor records in Heptathlon 6418 points, high jump 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in), and long jump 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in). Her hometown is

Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago Saint Augustine is a town in the northwest of Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago. Town It is the site of the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine (UWI-STA). In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 16,571 students enrolled in the univers ...

, and she went to high school in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

at The Ensworth School before attending

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

to complete a

BA Degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

to pursue a master's degree. In July 2017, Gittens broke her own national junior

heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

record in winning the

Pan American Combined Events Cup The Pan American Combined Events Cup (''Spanish: Copa Panamericana de Pruebas Combinadas'') is a track and field competition in men's decathlon and women's heptathlon. Organized by the Association of Panamerican Athletics (APA), newly constituted ...

Ottawa, Canada Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

, gaining 5,490 points in the seven-discipline event to improve on the 5,337-point standard she had established in 2016. Competing in the long jump at the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the f ...

Gittens finished 19th in the qualifying heats with a best jump of 6.44m. Gittens has had an ongoing Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for treatment for

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

. However, a failure to complete the application for a renewal of the TUE correctly led to a positive test for methylphenidate/ritalinic acid at the World Championships and a six-month doping violation ban.

NCAA

Gittens is an 18-time

NCAA Division 1 NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n, 3-time

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 ...

Champion, 5-time

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

Champion, and 20-time All-SEC honoree. Gittens won silver in the women’s

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 ...

at the 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association

Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. She did however win gold in the heptathlon, despite the fact she injured her ankle in the days before the event. In June 2021, she was named to the US Track and Field Cross Country Association (USTFCCCA) National awards list, winning the Women's National Field Athlete of the Year award, as they stated that with ,,,her win at the SEC event she had become the third best performer in collegiate history in the heptathlon. In Texas on 14 May 2021 at SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, she jumped 6.96m to place her inside the top 10 for the year so far and set Trinidad and Tobago records in Heptathlon 6418 points, high jump , and long jump . Her performance at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships (SEC) in Texas, as well as attaining the Olympic standard for the delayed

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

in the long jump, she won silver in the women’s

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

competition with a height of 1.89m, she missed out on qualifying for the heptathlon at the 2020 Olympics on that day by just two points, accumulating 6,418 points in winning the seven-discipline event. In

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until ...

on 11 March 2021 at

NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships 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 and ...

, she jumped 6.68m to place her inside the top 10 for the year so far and set Trinidad and Tobago records in Pentathlon 4746 points, high jump , and long jump . Tyra Gittens University of Texas & Texas A&M results
TFRRS

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gittens, Tyra 1998 births Living people Trinidad and Tobago female athletes People from Tunapuna–Piarco Texas A&M Aggies women's track and field athletes Competitors at the 2019 Summer Universiade Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Trinidad and Tobago Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Trinidad and Tobago Texas A&M Aggies men's track and field athletes Texas A&M University alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni Texas Longhorns men's track and field athletes