(Jan. 30, 2010): Jamaica’s Nicholas Gordon, the reigning NCAA indoor long jump champion with an indoor personal best of 26’-4¼” / 8.03m, didn’t attain his status in the pit by being faint-hearted. As a matter of fact, having had to face fierce rivalry year after year at the high school championships in his country, the 21-year-old two-time All-American at the University of Nebraska (Nebraska) is well conditioned to stay calm under competitive pressure. He is also poised to continue his dominance in the 2010 NCAAs, as he aims to surpass the 27-foot mark this season. 

Gordon, the former Calabar High School student, is now in his third year at Nebraska and is making a name for himself in the Big XII Conference. He is the reigning Big XII indoor and outdoor long jump champion with an outdoor PB 26’-7¼” or 8.11m. His indoor PB (8.03m) and outdoor PB (8.11m) are ranked second and third, respectively, on Nebraska’s long jump all-time list. Gordon capped his 2009 season by representing his island nation at the 2009 Berlin World Championships.

Like so many other Caribbean athletes, Gordon did not start out on the track. “I played football (soccer) at Calabar High School. I was the captain of the Colt’s Under-14 football championship team and I was also co-captain of Calabar’s Manning Cup/Oliver Shield Championships team [the symbol of high school football supremacy in Jamaica].

“I picked up track and field when I was in the Eighth Grade at Calabar. Herb McKinley [the former 400m world record-holder and coach at Calabar] saw me in PE [physical education] class and wanted me to run track,” he recalls. “He wanted me to run the 400m. I was about 5’7” at the time. Coach Robinson, the jump coach, wanted me to do the long jump.  So I decided to do the long jump as well as run the 800m.”

The Champs Experience

Gordon recalls that between the Eighth and Ninth Grades he grew two inches and competed in the 800m, long jump and high jump in Class III at Champs [the Jamaica High School Championships]. He won the long jump, was third in the high jump and placed fourth in the 800m. At the end of the Ninth Grade, he decided to focus only on the long jump and the triple jump.

In Tenth Grade, Gordon became the Class II long jump champion (6.79m/ 22.22’) and in Eleventh Grade, was the runner-up in the Class II long jump (24’-1¾’). In the Upper Sixth Form, his final year in high school, he took the Class I long jump title with 24’-8”.

“There is no experience like the Champs experience. It was a good experience for me,” Gordon said. “The more pressure, the better I tend to perform at meets. The unique thing about Champs is that it is continuously loud all the time. And so much is expected of you,” he said, pointing out that the closest pressure environment he has encountered outside of his Champs is at the Penn’s Relays.

“At the NCAAs I get nervous before my meets but growing up in Jamaica and performing at the Champs, I have learned to cope with pressure.”

Why Nebraska?

“When I was in the Eleventh Grade, Coach Matt Martin of the University of Nebraska came to see me jump and offered me a scholarship. I had a choice to go right away or to spend two years in Sixth Form. I decided to stay another two years. I chose Nebraska because they were the only college that recruited me hard.  The University of Arkansas and Florida State University were also on my list of favorites,” he remembers. 

Gordon also remembers that it was his visit to Nebraska in February, during his final year at Calabar, which made him decide to go to Nebraska. “I happened to visit on the coldest day of the year; that was the first time I had ever seen snow and it was freezing cold. But the people at Nebraska were so warm and friendly…they won me over.”

Gordon said that at first the adjustment at Nebraska was very challenging. “I have never worked this hard in my life. I did a lot of lifting [weights] here and my training program was very hard. Assistant Coach Peterson and Head Coach Gary Pepin were slowly building up my work load,” he said.

The 5’9” jumper also recalls that for the first few months at Nebraska, he would be so tired after his daily workouts; he would have a hard time training the next day. However, his body soon got used to the routine. By the end of his first year, he had a personal best 7.91m in the long jump and by the end of his second year he leaped a PB 8.11m (26’-7¼”) [attained at the 2009 Jamaica Senior Trials]. During his sophomore season, Gordon also established the Big XII Championship indoor long jump record of 7.96m.

The Student Athlete

Gordon is not only dominant on the track but he is also equally impressive in the classroom. At Nebraska, he is majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. His career goal is to become a lawyer, specializing in International Relations. He currently has a 3.5 GPA and was named to the First-Team Academic All- Big XII in 2009.

“I have taken a lot of hard courses such as Chinese Politics…and to be able to maintain a 3.5 cumulative GPA makes me proud,” he said. 

This achievement at Nebraska is a continuation of his academic prowess while at Calabar where he amassed credits in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) for Mathematics, Communications, Literature and Sociology.

Lesson in Berlin

Gordon’s 2009 Berlin experience was very special to him. “I enjoyed it’” he says. “I learned a lot; it taught me what it takes to get to that level…a lot of hard work. It was fun for me and Jamaica did very well.”

Although jumping only 7.92m (well below his PB 8.11m) in Berlin, Gordon said, “My jump in Berlin was very good, since I was coming off a long indoor and outdoor college season. I was not totally disappointed with my performance.”

As for the 2010 season, the focused athlete said, “My first goal is to defend my indoor title and I feel I am at a good place to be able to do that. My second goal is to jump over 27 feet.  I am working hard and I know that I can get there.”

And his parents are behind him all the way. “My mother and my step-dad are very supportive of me and they often attended my track meets when I was in Jamaica. In fact, my step-dad will be coming up to Nebraska sometime this season to see me jump,” said the third child of four siblings.

As a field athlete, Nicholas Gordon knows well that the buzz nowadays is all about track events -- particularly the sprints -- and agrees that track athletes get all the attention. But the aspiring lawyer isn’t perturbed; he reasons that, “It’s all about paying the bills. People like to watch the 100, 200 and 400m because those events have such flair. Sometimes we deserve some attention but it's all about paying the bills.”