From walk-on to Olympian: The Russell Robinson story – “Just being able to put on for the University of Miami, my family and the USA is a great achievement”

When University of Miami track and field jumper Russell Robinson arrived in Coral Gables in 2020, he was a walk-on athlete eager to make a name for himself and prove to everyone that he belonged.

Fast forward four years later, and he is now a United States Olympian.

For many athletes around the nation, representing the US at the Olympics is the fulfillment of a dream becoming a reality, as it is for Robinson after the senior jumper qualified for Paris in the men’s triple jump.

“It’s a very special thing because not a lot of people make it,” Robinson told CaneSport. “And then just being able to put on for the University of Miami, my family, and the USA is a great achievement and opportunity.”

During the Olympic Trials in June at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, Robinson punched his ticket to Paris by jumping 17.01m (55 feet, 9.75 inches),enough to earn second place. He will be one of three triple jumpers representing the United States at the Olympics, alongside Salif Mane (Fairleigh Dickinson) and Donald Scott (Adidas).

Throughout the event, Russell was unsure whether his distance would be enough to qualify for the Games, but once he learned his fate, it was a moment he won’t soon forget.

“I wasn’t having the best day competitively, so I was just doing what I needed to do to make it,” Robinson said. “I was just happy and didn’t know what to do after the fact. There were just a lot of emotions going through my head, and I was just happy that I made it after all the hard work I put in to get to this point. Just a very exciting moment.”

Although the Olympics may be a daunting event to some, Robinson believes his time in Miami over the last four years has prepared him for what is to come.

“My coaches have prepared me for this moment,” Robinson said. “We’ve been to some of these bigger meets before, and the Olympics are bigger than those, but having the support system from my coaches, teammates, and family out here is a really good thing to have in your corner.”

In particular, Robinson named Hurricanes jumps/combined events coach Rob Jarvis, as one person who played one of the biggest roles in helping him get to where he is today.

Jarvis, who has been coaching Miami’s track and field team since 2017, has seen Robinson blossom from a walk-on athlete to now representing his country on the biggest stage track and field has to offer.

“It’s wild when you look at it,” Jarvis said. “Just the recruiting apparatus we have at The U, the medical and sports science, and our training philosophy work. He just bought in, and his trajectory has been amazing. With Russell, credit to our medical staff, who identified that he had a lot of weakness through his hips and core area. And as you could imagine, as a jumper, that could be detrimental to him excelling. His first year he spent in the training and weight room, and that fall he jumped over 8 meters in the long jump and the first time he jumped over 16 meters in the triple jump. That right there is what I think got the ball rolling.”

In May, Robinson posted a mark of 16.76 meters in the triple jump at this year’s NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston, which secured him a national championship. After taking second in the outdoor triple jump last season, Russell made it his mission to stand atop the podium this year, and he did just that.

Robinson, the program’s 18th national champion, will be the first Miami track and field athlete to represent Team USA at the summer Olympics since T’erea Brown (400m hurdles) and Lauryn Williams (4x100m) competed at the 2012 London Games. Miami’s Director of Track and Field/Cross Country, Amy Deem, joined Brown and Williams in London as Team USA’s women’s head coach.

“It felt good because last year I got second at outdoor nationals, and the whole goal this year was to train, get better, and win nationals,” Robinson said. “To me, it was an expectation and not really surprising, but to be able to go out there and win it on my first jump and hold on to it was very exciting.”

With momentum in his favor after winning a national championship and qualifying for the Olympics, Russell is hoping to add some more silverware to his collection, but this time for Team USA.

“The mindset has been the same as it’s been the entire season,” Robinson said. “Just because it’s a bigger meet, I’m not going to switch up or change anything. I’m just going to go out there and do what I’ve been doing. I’m now going to be competing with the best guys in the world, so I’m going to go out there and show who I am, compete to the best of my ability, and do my thing.”

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