PARIS, France — It was a medal-heavy night for the U.S. track and field team thanks in no small part to North Texan Tara Davis-Woodhall.
Davis-Woodhall will bring home a gold medal in the long jump competition after placing first in the final Thursday. She is known for wearing a cowboy hat after winning competitions and she sports the hat often, winning the 2024 World Indoor Long Jump competition and finishing first at the Olympic trials this year.
The gold medal was won after facing adversity, she placed sixth at the 2020 Games in Tokyo and narrowly qualified for the Olympics at the trails in Eugene, Oregon after scratching twice.
This time, after celebrating her gold medal win she met up with a tiara-wearing Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who had just won her own gold medal while breaking a world record in the 400-meter hurdles.
“I was like, ‘You did it.’ And she was like, ‘YOU did it,’” Davis-Woodhall recounted. “And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I did it’. ... Is this real? Am I dreaming?”
Davis-Woodhall lived in Wylie until she was 11-years-old. Now, she trains with her Paralympian husband Hunter Woodhall at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The couple went viral for the sweet moment they shared after Davis-Woodhall won the gold medal.
"I love them both. I've been so blessed to have a son-in-law that is so dynamic who can support Tara in her adventure and her journey in life," Rayshon Davis, Davis-Woodhall's mother previously told WFAA.
The couple had big plans after she won gold. She told the Associated Press the couple would probably go find a sirloin steak in the city of lights to celebrate the win.
Along with it, "a tequila shot or something,” Davis-Woodhall said.