Will Claye (born June 13, 1991) is an American

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete of Sierra Leonean descent who competes in the

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He won a bronze medal in

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

and the gold medals at the

2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was the 14th edition of the global-level indoor track and field competition and was held between March 9–11, 2012 at the Ataköy Athletics Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. It was the first of fou ...

and

2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 17th IAAF World Indoor Championships was held from 1 to 4 March 2018 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. This was the city's second hosting of the event as it previously did so in 2003. Bidding process Birmingham bid for the 2016 IAAF World Ind ...

. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Claye won a bronze medal in long jump and a silver medal in triple jump. He repeated his silver medal in the

four years later. His personal best of , set at the

Jim Bush James Stanley Bush (September 15, 1926 – July 10, 2017) was a National Track and Field Hall of Fame track and field coach. He was known primarily for his coaching tenure at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1964 to 1984. Dur ...

Southern California USATF Championships in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

on June 29, 2019 ranks him as the No. 3 triple jumper of all time. Will was two-time

Arizona Interscholastic Association The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) is one of two regulatory bodies for high school athletics and activities in the state of Arizona. It comprises all of the state's public district high schools (except Ajo High School, Beaver Dam High S ...

high school champion in the triple jump, establishing a new state record of over 50 feet. He attended

Mountain Pointe High School Mountain Pointe High School is a secondary school located in Ahwatukee, Arizona one of eight public high schools serving the Tempe Union High School District. History The Ahwatukee area of Phoenix experienced explosive growth in the 1990s. The ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

, where he was named to the 2008 ''USA Today's'' All-USA Team in both jumps. Claye enrolled early at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, but later transferred to the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. Will Claye later went on to record the rap song "IDGAF" with YG.

Career

College career

While attending the

, Claye competed for the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Ru ...

men's track and field team. He won the 2009

NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship The NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship refers to one of three annual collegiate outdoor track and field competitions for men organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for athletes from institutions that make up ...

in the triple jump on his 18th birthday, establishing a new American junior record of . During his second year at Oklahoma, Claye's performance dropped off due to stress fractures in his back and leg. After the 2010 outdoor season, he transferred to the

to join defending outdoor champion Christian Taylor and training under legendary jumps coach

Dick Booth Richard Thomas Booth (July 13, 1918 – November 25, 1987) was an American football player who played professional football in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions in 1941 and 1945. Booth was born in Newell, WV, before movi ...

. The collegiate 2011 indoor season was capped by Florida winning the NCAA Indoor National Championship, thanks to Coach Booth's jumpers scoring 30 of the Gators' 52 points, led by Claye's national title in the triple jump and his runner-up finish in the long jump. Claye finished second at the 2011

s behind Taylor. The two went on to finish in the same order at the 2011

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Oly ...

. Claye finished his collegiate career at Florida, after his junior year, ending with eight "All American" honors and with two NCAA titles (the 2009 outdoor triple jump title and the 2011 indoor title); he won both the triple and long jumps at the 2011 SEC Championships.

2011 World Championships

in Daegu, South Korea, Claye was 9th in long jump and 3rd in triple jump. Claye, and Gator teammate Christian Taylor, withdrew from the University of Florida after the 2011 Worlds, and turned professional in order to concentrate on preparing for the 2012 London Olympics. He is sponsored by Nike and is training under the direction of Martin Smith.

2012 Olympic Year

Claye established the early, indoor season, leading mark in the triple jump of at the 2012 Tyson Invitational on February 11 in Fayetteville, Arkansas (his only valid jump in the elite competition). At the 2012 USA Indoor Championships in February Claye not only won the triple jump, but he exceeded 57 feet on 3 consecutive jumps, finishing with a world-leading mark of . In addition, Claye finished second in the long jump with a mark of . He went on to claim his first world title at the

. He won the triple jump ahead of Christian Taylor with a clearance of 17.70 m and also placed fourth in the long jump. In the outdoor season, he began with runner-up finishes at both the

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and Eugene legs of the

2012 Diamond League The 2012 IAAF Diamond League (also known as the 2012 Samsung Diamond League for sponsorship purposes) was the third edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 11 May in Doha, ...

.Gains, Paul (June 2, 2012)
Dibaba 30:24.39 and Kiprop 27:01.98 on stunning but wet first night in Eugene – Samsung Diamond League
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-06-03. At the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Claye first won the bronze medal in long jump, then followed up by winning the silver medal in triple jump five days later. He is the first man to win medals in both the long and triple jumps at the same Olympics since

Naoto Tajima was a Japanese athlete who competed at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. In 1932 he finished sixth in the long jump, while in 1936 he finished third in the long jump, behind Jesse Owens and Luz Long, and won the triple jump event, setting a world rec ...

of Japan at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics.

2013 World Championships

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

in Moscow, Claye

ed (Wind: +0.5 m/s).

2015 World Championships

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

in Beijing, Claye

ed (Wind: +0.2 m/s).

2016 Olympic Year

In Summer Olympics, Claye

ed (Wind: +0.4 m/s) to earn a silver medal.

Major competition record

USA National Track and field Championships

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.

References

External links

* * *

USATF USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 a ...

profile fo
Will ClayeFlorida Gators bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claye, Will Living people 1991 births American male triple jumpers American people of Sierra Leonean descent Sportspeople of Sierra Leonean descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Florida Gators men's track and field athletes Oklahoma Sooners men's track and field athletes Track and field athletes from Phoenix, Arizona Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field World Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Olympic male triple jumpers Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona World Athletics Indoor Championships winners USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners