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(MIRROR INDY) — To become one of the best athletes in America — one of the best in the world, for that matter — Tacoria Humphrey had to get down and dirty.
When she was at Warren Central High School, her coach, Steve Smith, encouraged her to try the long jump. She replied she didn’t want to get dirty landing in the sand. It became an ongoing gag.
Humphrey doesn’t necessarily remember the back-and-forth with the coach, but she conceded:
“That sounds like something I would have said.”
Her college coach, Petros Kyprianou, saw what her high school coach did — an athlete with rare explosiveness. So did her mother, who thought her daughter might be a gymnast. Instead, Tacoria Humphrey is a Simone Biles in spikes.
When she arrived at the University of Illinois, she was ready to abandon the high jump and try the long jump. In a span of 26 months, she has transformed from newbie to medal contender. It would be analogous to converting a shortstop into one of the top pitchers in baseball — in a couple of seasons.
Humphrey has the “it factor,” Kyprianou said.
“Her time is coming.”
Her distances are climbing.
In the Big Ten indoor meet, held Feb. 28 in her hometown, Humphrey jumped 22 feet, 9 ¼ inches at Fall Creek Pavilion. She might have jumped farther because Kyprianou asserts her hair brushed the sand behind where she landed, costing a few inches. And Humphrey had another jump, 22-5, almost as long.
(Provided Photo/University of Illinois)
The 22-9 ¼ the third longest indoor jump by a college woman. It is longer than Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Tianna Bartoletta, Brittney Reese and Tara Davis-Woodhall — all Olympic gold medalists — jumped indoors as college athletes. It is a distance that would have won a medal in all but two world championships since 1993.
On March 14, after failures at previous major meets, Humphrey finished second in the NCAA Indoor Championships with a distance of 22-1 ¾.
Kyprianou, a native of Cyprus, coached Georgia to men’s and women’s NCAA team championships before arriving at Illinois. He has coached 18 Olympians — including Davis-Woodhall and gold medalist Lynna Irby of Indianapolis — and is preparing Humphrey for Los Angeles 2028.
“I can tell he believes in me, and I can tell that he sees the potential,” Humphrey said. “That motivates me. He sees way more than me.”
Some experts consider long jump the most revealing test of athleticism. The United States’ greatest male and female Olympians in track and field, Carl Lewis and Joyner-Kersee, were gold medalists in the long jump.
Humphrey starred at Warren Township schools
Humphrey began in track at Raymond Park Middle School on Indianapolis’ east side, setting records in the high jump and 200 meters. She also participated in volleyball and cheerleading.
Humphrey’s grandmother nicknamed her “Coco,” a variation of Tacoria. Or “Flipping Coco.” She was a crowd-pleasing figure who could do back flips the length of a basketball court or a football field.
“From the time she could walk, she flipped,” said her mother, Tosha Crowe. “She taught herself every flip. Gymnastics, it was too slow-paced.”
Smith, her high school coach and a former high jumper who was a Pan American Games silver medalist, said he could have “forced the issue” on long jump. Of the six Indiana high school girls who have ever jumped 20 feet, he has coached three. But Humphrey was busy enough in the high jump, 200 meters and relays.
At the 2021 state meet, she won the high jump and was fourth in the 200, bringing Warren Central within one point of the team championship. Even then, her coach sensed she was beginning to explore her talent.
She might have had a “1,000-watt smile,” as Smith put it, but was also a headstrong “squirrely bird.”
Her mother acknowledged Humphrey could be rebellious. The mother required her daughter to make up any missed practices, and she put her trust in Warren Central’s coaches.
“It was such a breath of fresh air to have a parent on your side 100%,” Smith said.
Jumping at Illinois
Humphrey remained a high jumper during her freshman year at Illinois, and she eventually cleared a bar at 6 feet. But after the previous Illini coach was fired and replaced by Kyprianou, he reasoned she had more potential as a long jumper. And there wasn’t much talent at Illinois then anyway, he said.
“I knew there was something good in her,” he said.
Humphrey was all in, despite initial frustration. She started with a conventional technique but dropped her feet early. She switched to a hitch kick, which involves a running-like motion in the air.
An early breakthrough came when she jumped 20-9 to finish second in the Big Ten in May 2023 at Bloomington. Except she was far behind the takeoff board and easily could have won.
“It kind of did make me mad,” she said.
It was a revelation to her Illini coach.
“I was like, ‘OK, this person, she’s cut out for something big in this event. Now, she’s upset that she didn’t win,’” Kyprianou said. “So that’s when I was like, ‘I’m going to pour in everything I’ve got.’”
Humphrey’s athleticism was obvious. The coach noticed that during a hurdles drill in which she missed a takeoff, came down on her face and turned the fall into a cartwheel. Flipping Coco was back.
Yet progress was not linear. There were missteps.
Indoors in 2024, her second year as a long jumper, she was eighth in the Big Ten and 13th in the NCAA. Outdoors, she was 12th in the Big Ten with one attempt left in prelims but came through with a clutch jump and won at 21-0 ¾. Unexpectedly, she did not qualify for the NCAA Championships out of a regional.
“That hurt her,” Kyprianou said.
Humphrey persisted. She was more motivated than ever. She trained harder than ever. Kyprianou overheard her tell teammates, “I’m going to win the NCAA.”
Two teammates, Elizabeth Ndudi of Ireland and sophomore Sophia Beckmon, have also jumped 22 feet.
Beckmon has been doing this longer than Humphrey. The 19-year-old nearly broke the national high school record. Beckmon won a silver medal in the under-20 World Championships and was fifth at indoor NCAAs. Humphrey said they push each other and learn from each other.
“These two, I think, are the future,” Kyprianou said.
Trouble at the Olympic Trials
More evidence of Humphrey’s inexperience came when she was 14th at the 2024 Olympic Trials. She said she wasn’t intimidated by other jumpers but that her approach down the runway “just wasn’t there.”
Of course, that she was there at all would have been unfathomable — at least to her — when she was a teenager.
“You had all these people telling her how good she could be. ‘Good at what?’ She had no clue,’” Smith said.
Her high school coach has witnessed Humphrey mature not only as an athlete, but as a woman. He said he hears it in the timbre of her voice.
Now goals are specific: jump 7 meters (23 feet), be an NCAA champion, secure a contract from a shoe company, make a U.S. team, win a medal.
“It’s like surreal,” her mother said.
Looking to the Olympics again
Humphrey has been hearing from agents but could use an enhanced resume. The long jump is so competitive that in the past four global championships, four American women have combined to win six medals.
(Provided Photo/University of Illinois)
Kyprianou lamented that Humphrey’s collegiate eligibility is expiring. One more season, he said, and she would break collegiate records. After college, she plans to remain in Champaign to train and perhaps pursue graduate school. She is a community health major.
Her speed is such that she runs a leg in the 4×100-meter relay, an event in which the Illini were second in the Big Ten and 13th at NCAAs last year.
“I believe in her ability,” Kyprianou said. “When she gets a little more mature and understands ‘I can do this,’ if she puts a 7.10-meter jump on the day, she will make money.
“Enough to at least live off that through L.A.”
The L.A. Olympics are more than three years away. That is longer than Humphrey has been long jumping. She is gaining understanding, considers long jump “so fun” and is becoming consistent.
Flipping Coco is leaving her mark in the sand and in the record book.
David Woods is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at dwoods1411@gmail.com or follow him on X @DavidWoods007.