Omar Craddock (born April 26, 1991) is an American

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 in 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 ...

. With the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

he won one indoor and two outdoor

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. ...

titles in the event. He competed alongside Christian Taylor and

Will Claye Will Claye (born June 13, 1991) is an American track and field athlete of Sierra Leonean descent who competes in the long jump and triple jump. He won a bronze medal in 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the gold medals at the 2012 IAAF W ...

in a succession of elite level triple jumpers to come from the

Florida Gators track and field The Florida Gators track and field program represents the University of Florida in the sport of track and field. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic As ...

team. He was the bronze medalist at the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

. In 2013 he won the national triple jump title at the

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 ...

. His personal best for the triple jump is . Craddock served a 20 month competition ban from 2020 to 2022 following an anti-doping regulation violation relating to missed tests.

Career

Early life

Raised in

Killeen, Texas Killeen is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Bell County. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095, making it the 19th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is ...

, he attended

Killeen High School Killeen High School is a public high school located in Killeen, Texas and classified as a 6A school by the University Interscholastic League. It is one of six high schools in the Killeen Independent School District, which is located in western B ...

and enjoyed

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

. He began to achieve good marks in the triple jump in 2008 – his best that year was 15.53 m, which brought him second at the

AAU Junior Olympic Games The AAU Junior Olympic Games are the pinnacle competitions held annually by the US Amateur Athletic Union. Overview The AAU Junior Olympic Games are known as the largest national multi-sport event for youth in the United States. It has become th ...

. He was also the state champion in the event in 2008.Omar Craddock
. GatorZone. Retrieved on June 22, 2013.

College athletics

He gained an athletics scholarship at the

and began to compete collegiately for the

team. In his first year there he quickly established himself as one of the school's best ever jumpers. He jumped (his first over sixteen metres) to take third at the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

indoor championship and placed seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championship. He was runner-up at the Florida Relays, won at the

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (officially The Penn Relay Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012 ...

. A second-place finish at the 2010 SEC Outdoor Championship helped the Florida Gators to their first team title in over twenty years. A sixth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championship gave Craddock his second

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n honour for the year. He ended the season with his first international medal: after a personal best of to win the national junior title he took bronze at the

. The 2011 collegiate season began with school-best performances : at the SEC Indoor Championships the Florida Gators swept the men's triple jump through Christian Taylor,

and Craddock. The three produced the best jump's in the school's history and Craddock was third with a best of . He came fifth at the NCAA Indoors and won his first outdoor meet at the Penn Relays, but missed the rest of the outdoor season. In his third year with the Gators he reached new highs as his teammates Taylor and Claye finished their studies. He won both the SEC Indoor and NCAA Indoor Championship titles, setting a new personal record of at the latter event. An outdoor best of followed and he secured both the SEC and NCAA Outdoor titles too – following in the footsteps of Taylor's 2010 feat. He placed fourth at the 2012 Olympic Trials, where his former Gator teammates took the top spots. In his fourth and final year at Florida, Craddock found strong competition indoors. At the SEC Indoors he jumped but was narrowly beaten by Tarik Batchelor. He cleared a new best of at the NCAA Indoors, but was again runner-up as Bryce Lamb jumped almost seventeen metres. In the outdoor season Craddock began an undefeated streak, starting at the

Texas Relays The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays is an annual track and field competition held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The University of Texas serves as host for the event, held on either the last weekend of March or first weekend of April. E ...

. He retained his SEC and the NCAA triple jump titles and improved his best to . He got the better of Will Claye at the

2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was held at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. Organised by USA Track and Field, the four-day competition took place June 20–23 in conjunction with the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Champion ...

to win his first national title in a wind-assisted .Rupp wins fifth consecutive US 10,000m title
IAAF (June 21, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-06-22.

Personal bests

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 ...

(outdoor): (2019) *

(outdoor): (2015) *

(outdoor): (2013) *

(outdoor): w (2014) *

(indoor): (2013) *

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 ...

(indoor): (2013)

National titles

*NCAA Indoor titles: 2012 *NCAA Outdoor titles: 2012, 2013 *USA Outdoor titles: 2013, 2015

International competitions

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Craddock, Omar Living people 1991 births Sportspeople from Killeen, Texas Track and field athletes from Texas American male triple jumpers African-American track and field athletes World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Florida Gators men's track and field athletes USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) 21st-century African-American sportsmen NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners 21st-century American sportsmen Doping cases in athletics American sportspeople in doping cases Diamond League winners