Tara Davis Bests Her Own National Indoor Championship Winning Performance After Serving Suspension Due to Banned Substance Use

Former Olympian and U.S. track and field star Tara Davis returned to competition at the 2023 LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Davis earned the national indoor title (long jump) while competing in the Track and Field Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 17. There, the athletics star had landed a 6.99 meters jump. However, after testing a urine sample from the February event, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found THC in Davis’s system. 

On Tuesday, April 25, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Davis had been stripped of her national title. THC, the principal psychoactive compound found in Cannabis, is a banned substance. USADA also announced Davis had completed serving her suspension, which started on March 21. However, Davis exceeded all expectations in her first competition of the 2023 season.

Tara Davis bounced back after facing adversity

The public was not privy to Davis’s situation until USADA’s Tuesday announcement. The Oylmpian has also not opened up about serving the suspension. However, instead of words, the 23-year-old let her performance do the talking. At the LSU Invitational this weekend, Tara Davis lept a whopping 7.05 meters, shattering her previous best at the national championships.

Quanesha Burks placed second with a 6.95 meters jump, while Claire Bryant lept 6.52 meters earning a 3rd place finish. It’s noteworthy that even with 6.95 meters, Burks landed a World Leading jump. After an immaculate start at the 2023 season opener, Davis took to Twitter to retweet the results. She also wrote two tweets about her win.

“That’s how you do it,” Davis wrote in her first tweet. The American junior record holder in the indoor long jump also wrote, “love being better than I was,” in her second tweet. Despite facing adversity in the form of a suspension and losing her national title days before the season opener, Davis performed at her best.

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The former national champion also didn’t let the suspension derail her training. On April 28, the Olympian posted a training video on Instagram. “season opener this weekend,” wrote Davis as the caption of her long jump training video. Tara Davis is also not the first track and field athlete to face sanctions after testing positive for THC.

Another track and field prodigy shared a similar fate

In 2021, sprinting prodigy Sha’Carri Richardson suffered a massive blow to her career. Like Davis, Richardson also posted record-setting times at the collegiate level. At 19, the sprinter broke the World Under-20 100 meters record. Richardson also earned her place in Team USA after posting a 10.86-second 100-meter run in the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers.

However, she later tested positive for THC and got banned from the Tokyo Olympics. The sanction took a toll on Richardson, and she didn’t reach the previous highs during the 2022 season. However, like Davis, Sha’Carri Richardson also made a triumphant return, winning the 2023 Miramar Invitational.

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What did you think of Tara Davis’s performance? Do you think she can qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics? Let us know in the comments.