Cordell Tinch Could be The Best Jumper in America? | 2026 USATF Championships
Cordell Tinch placed fourth in the long jump at the 2026 USATF Championships in his first series of jumps all season. Primarily focusing on the 110mH, Tinch will race in the first round on Sunday July 26.
Video Transcript
Didn't really get much practice, but obviously, slowly throughout my series it got better and better and better.
If I'm able to just consistently practice going into the future championship years, I'll definitely enjoy it.
Yeah, so kind of going into, you said you didn't have much practice, it was kind of pushed to the back, but still you performed amazing at this championship.
How does it kind of push your confidence into possibly doing it later on?
You've hinted at, you know, 2028 maybe doing both.
How does it kind of influence your confidence in maybe doing that in the future?
It definitely is, like, on the table for me, because I haven't-- I'm not afraid to say it, I've said it before, I confidently believe if I put the same amount of time into long jump as the rest of the jumpers, I'm the best long jumper in America.
Which, with the state of where, you know, the United States long jump has been, that's the tough part, is, like, some people are like, "Well, that don't really hold much weight, because we haven't seen y'all on global finals."
And it's like, I believe that the American long jumpers are very talented, and are talented enough to be on the stage.
It's just they don't get-- It sounds crazy to say, but they don't really have as many opportunities to, like, go overseas, because we haven't seen them in any Diamond Leagues, we haven't seen them in a lot of the gold meets.
A lot of them don't travel, and that's the tough part because of the funding for the jumps as well.
So it's the tough, like, balance, which for me, it's kind of like an easy thing for me to be able to, "I'm already over there, just throw me in the long jump as well," like, things like that.
But you know, it's got to start somewhere in order to build it up, so that's the plan.
I was going to ask that too, do you feel like the performance that you can kind of help, you kind of build up the jumps for you guys?
May start getting funny, even if not you, but kind of as a co-house, everyone kind of getting accustomed to- Yeah, I think it's, you know, we all kind of-- They all joke around the same way of, like, "Brad, you don't even need to be here.
You're a hurdler," yada, yada, yada, even though all of them know I love to jump.
And you know, even something, it's sounds bad to say, but even, like, a day like today where we're jumping on the opposite side of the stadium, there's no fans over there.
There's no energy over there.
Then people are going to question, "Well, they only jumped eight oh, eight oh."
Well, yeah, there's no-- Nobody's over there supporting.
If you guys want to see far jumps, it's-- Long jump, triple jump, high jump are energy events.
The higher the energy is over there, the higher the competition energy is, the more we feed into it.
We give y'all, like, that's how it works.
But something like this, we've said it the whole time, if we had more energy, it'd be a different competition.
Do you like a kind of different standpoint, you have no kind of standup, you like it kind of being like you jumping like that, like kind of working you for the- Like, it was all-- We all had to be there for one another in order for any type of energy, and didn't help with running into a headwind for the first three jumps for everybody, then a tailwind.
It was-- Yeah.
But it's definitely something that America itself needs to, I think, we need fans to pay more attention to jumps, because it's real easy for them to fill the stands for Tara.
It's real easy for that, but then they don't give the same type of grace on the men's side.
So do you think that you're going to have, like, a future in the long jump, like in the next couple of years or so, to kind of build that up, like, for yourself and also, like, the jump community?
The thing is, I, as a, as a hurdler and being, you know, a world champion in the hurdles already, yes, I would love to be able to long jump and have fun with it.
But at the same time, I'm not trying to take opportunities away from these guys.
Like, it-- Because just like I hurdled to pay my bills, they jump to pay theirs.
Therefore, if they're giving me a lane when they could have gave Isaac a lane, or a jumping spot, I'd feel bad for the sole reason of instead of jumping at whatever meet it was, now I'm over here.
So, like, it's a thing that, like, yes, I would love to build up so we can get more support so that we can get farther jumps, but it's something that is a very tough thing to balance.
So what made you choose to jump today then?
It was more of just a, you know, come out here, have a good time.
I entered in both the long jump and the hurdles, just kind of said I'll do whatever I feel like.
Practiced for both so far this week and, you know, talked a lot of mess with my coach, my agent of, you know, what I believe that I could do and what, you know, things are.
So it, coming into it, I wanted to at least take a few jumps, but then after the first one I was like, "Damn, it's going to take a few in order to get back into the rhythm," so then I ended up taking all six.
So, we'll see how-- Thankfully I don't have to hurdle on Saturday no more, it's only on Sunday, so we'll see how that goes.
How are you going to prepare from this day?
You, you know, haven't jumped in a while, haven't competed in it.
How are you going to take, like, what you've done today to prepare for your race on Sat- Sunday?
It's, you know, I treat it the same way.
I prepare for everything the same.
Especially when we don't have an actual warm-up track for hurdles, I don't like to hurdle on grass or even, you know, laid out track surface.
So I will basically have the exact same day that I had today for the hurdles, and, we'll have recovery tonight, recovery tomorrow, and then Saturday pre-meet, and get ready to run fast on Sunday.
Has your mind shifted now that you're just running on Saturday instead-- or Sunday instead of Saturday and Sunday?
No, not really.
I think that I have the same mindset going into every race, you know?
For this, the race I'm going into, for it to be better than the last one, especially this year, where my goal is the ultimate championships, you know?
Taking top four here doesn't-- I mean, yes, it helps your world rankings, but it doesn't secure a team or anything like that for you.
So to be able to come out without that extra stress and then just, you know, look to slowly build into September, that's all I could ask for.
Tara mentioned, like, yesterday at the press conference, that her hurdles and the jumping, she's doubling in both as well, they kind of intertwine and sort of help each other out.
How do you feel with each kind of helping you out with the hurdles later on, with the performance in the long jump, with that kind of coming through?
I think for me, I've always hurdled my best when I was doing long jump stuff as well.
I've always competed my best, like, in college, I competed the best when I was doing multiple events on the same day.
So, like, for me, I love the extra stuff being thrown on my plate.
But yes, as she says, hurdles and long jump go hand in hand.
It's like the one and the two do, the two and the four, like, it's, they, there's a lot of things on the long jump runway that go into going into hurdle one, which sets up the other nine.
So, we'll take away, you know, our cut step today or our penultimate step from today, turn it into my cut step on Sunday.
So we'll have fun with it.
And also kind of like you said, we saw the world record go down in St. Blaze, you know, so how do you kind of feel, obviously going to Ultimates, how do you kind of feel the blue chain today?
I've seen that and tasked about hurdles being developed, and you've obviously been great this year.
How did this ma- later on possibly win Ultimates and, you know, never know, set a world record possibly?
I mean, as we've, a group of us have said, you know, Jamal has always ran fast.
It just, he kind of has gotten to the point where he's-- Sometimes I think that it's just he runs fast early and then it is a little tough.
But I think this year he's finally putting it together, showing the world that he is a world-class hurdler.
And Jacoby as well, you know, we've known that he was going to be a monster at some point soon.
But I think it just shows what we're trending up towards.
But every race is going to be fast.
You have to be fast.
That's the reason why I got to make sure I'm getting sharper and sharper with each race going into Ultimate, because yeah, 13:08 winning nothing anytime soon.
Well, can we-
