Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Tyra Gittens |
Born | Tunapuna–Piarco, Trinidad and Tobago | 6 June 1998
Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
Sport | |
Sport | Track and Field |
Event(s) | Long jump, High jump, Heptathlon |
Turned pro | 2022 |
Tyra Gittens (born 6 June 1998) is an Olympic athlete from Trinidad and Tobago.[1] Gittens set 6 national records for Trinidad and Tobago indoor records in Pentathlon 4746 points, high jump 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in), and long jump 6.68 m (21 ft 11 in), Trinidad and Tobago outdoor records in Heptathlon 6418 points, high jump 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in), and long jump 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in).[2]
Her hometown is Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, and she went to high school in Nashville at The Ensworth School before attending Texas A&M University to complete a BA Degree and University of Texas at Austin to pursue a master's degree.[3]
In July 2017, Gittens broke her own national junior heptathlon record in winning the Pan American Combined Events Cup in Ottawa, Canada, gaining 5,490 points in the seven-discipline event to improve on the 5,337-point standard she had established in 2016.[4]
Competing in the long jump at the 2022 World Athletics Championships Gittens finished 19th in the qualifying heats with a best jump of 6.44m.[5] Gittens has had an ongoing Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for treatment for ADHD. However, a failure to complete the application for a renewal of the TUE correctly led to a positive test for methylphenidate/ritalinic acid at the World Championships and a six-month doping violation ban.[6]