Trecia-Kaye Smith (born 5 November 1975 in Westmoreland, Jamaica) is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

n athlete competing mainly in

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 ...

Career

In college, she competed for the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

from 1996–1999 and was a seven-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 ...

national champion (two outdoor and three indoor long jump titles and one outdoor and one indoor triple jump title), 15-time All-American, a 14-time

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

champion, and a 15-time

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fr ...

champion. Trecia was named to the NCAA Division 1 Silver Anniversary Indoor Team and a "NCAA Division 1 Most Outstanding Student-Athlete". Her personal best is 15.16 metres, and she almost equalled that result at the 2005 World Championships where she, in the absence of Golden League winner

Tatyana Lebedeva Tatyana Romanovna Lebedeva (russian: Татьяна Романовна Лебедева, born 21 July 1976) is a Russian track and field athlete who competes in both the long jump and triple jump events. She is one of the most successful athle ...

, won the gold medal with 15.11 metres. Smith won triple jump at the 2009 Jamaican Championship with 14.43 m, qualifying for her fifth World Championships in Athletics. She retained her Commonwealth triple jump title at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

, and she was given the

David Dixon Award David Dixon Award is a four-yearly award given to the outstanding athlete of each Commonwealth Games, based on their performance at the event, fair play, and overall contribution to their team's participation at the Commonwealth Games. The award wa ...

for her performance. The decision was a surprise in many quarters as she had only one legal jump at the competition, a modest mark of 14.19 m which she herself acknowledged was "a terrible jump".

Alicia Coutts Alicia Jayne Coutts, (born 14 September 1987) is an Australian competitive medley, butterfly and freestyle swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (New Delhi). She w ...

, who emerged with five swimming gold medals, was among the athletes Smith was chosen ahead of.Trecia's big leap
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...

'' (2010-10-14). Retrieved on 2010-10-16.

Achievements

References

External links

* *
Picture of Trecia Smith
1975 births Living people People from Westmoreland Parish Jamaican female triple jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Jamaica Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Pittsburgh Panthers women's track and field athletes Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Jamaica World Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Jamaica World Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Jamaican women 21st-century Jamaican women Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games {{Jamaica-athletics-bio-stub