Ackelia Smith (born 5 February 2002) is a Jamaican

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competes internationally in both 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 gr ...

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 long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

Career

In June 2022, Smith won the Jamaican national championship in long jump with a jump of 6.56 metres and finished runner-up in the triple jump with a distance of 13.93 metres. Prior to that, in the same month representing the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

she had reached the finals of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

championships in both events finishing eighth in the long jump (6.34 m) and fourth in the triple jump (13.79 m). Selected for 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 ...

in the triple jump, Smith scored a big personal best of 14.36 metres to qualify for the final on her senior major championship debut. In the final Smith jumped 13.90 metres to finish in 12th place. Smith was selected for the long jump at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

held in

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest cit ...

and qualified for the final with a jump of 6.35 metres. Smith was selected for the

2023 World Athletics Championships The 2023 World Athletics Championships (), the nineteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships, were held from 19 to 27 August 2023 at the National Athletics Centre (Budapest), National Athletics Centre, in Budapest, Hungary. The tourna ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

in both the triple jump and the long jump. She did not qualify for the final in the triple jump. In the women's long jump, she finished eleventh in the final. She won both the long jump and the triple jump at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon in June 2024. That month, she won the Jamaican national championships long jump title in Kingston, Jamaica. In July 2024, she was officially selected in the long jump and the triple jump for the Jamaican team to compete at the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. She finished seventh overall in the triple jump event and eighth overall in the long jump event at the 2024 Olympic Games. She won the long jump and finished runner-up in the triple jump at the 2025 Jamaican Athletics Championships in Kingston. She placed sixth in the long jump at the

2025 Prefontaine Classic The 2025 Prefontaine Classic was the 50th edition of the annual outdoor track and field meeting in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was held on 5 July May at Hayward Field, it was the 9th leg of the 2025 Diamond League – the highest-level int ...

on 5 July.

References

External links

* *
Texas Longhorns bio
*
Ackelia Smith
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

(archived) 2002 births Living people Jamaican female triple jumpers World Athletics Championships athletes for Jamaica Texas Longhorns women's track and field athletes 21st-century Jamaican sportswomen NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Jamaica {{Jamaica-athletics-bio-stub