Jefferson-Wooden glides through 200m heat
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's blazing start gave her ample cushion to win her 200m heat at the USATF Outdoor National Championships.
Video Transcript
And there is the 25-year-old from South Carolina.
She's in the spotlight around the world because of her athletic accomplishments, but to speak to the old adage, everybody has a story, and her story runs deep.
There's her mom and dad.
There's Melvin and Johanna.
Just beautiful.
And a couple of lanes inside her in lane five is the 22-year-old Cameron Dixon.
Coming off of her senior season at Texas A&M, third at the NCAAs in the 200.
She also made the semifinal at the 2024 US Olympic Trial.
She's run 22.13 for a personal best this year.
Yeah, think about that, making the semis at an Olympic trials at just 20.
That was quite the, the, accomplishment.
Set.
Last semi for the women's 200.
Here we go.
The world champion is third from the outside.
Wow.
She is reminding you why she ran 21.68 last year.
This race is over.
Look at that, and now she is just pacing it to the line to save herself for the final.
Melissa Jefferson Wooden, the world champ, puts on a clinic.
I would say coach will be happy with that.
Ooh, you think?
And you're a coach.
I know frequency, frequency, frequency.
Did you see it?
Yeah, but s- what she did is she gave you frequency for about 80, 90 meters, and then came off the turn and went, "I've done enough work" which is exactly what I think her coach will want.
The frequency is really in the first 100.
Look at how, look at how quickly she's turning over here.
And then once she, once the turn straightens up, now this is, this is a back off.
This is- Yeah, 100- 70% maybe This is what she wanted to do.
Yeah.
She said she wanted to run the first 100 well and back off as much as she could.
She's literally slowing down in the final phase of the race, which is exactly how you want to run a first round because she suddenly wants to save everything for the finals tomorrow.
We know her parents are in the stands, always cheering her on.
So much pride for them to see their baby girl doing what she's doing.
And we can't forget, the world lead is 21.51, so I'm sure she has that on her mind for tomorrow- Oh, yeah as well.
Our colleagues are talking about your coaching instruction, frequency, frequency, frequency.
Didn't seem like you needed a whole lot to really negotiate this one, right?
Yeah.
The biggest thing today was to come out here and focus on getting out hard, holding it, and feeling my frequency through the turn.
And once I come off the c- turn, just trusting the ability that I'm strong enough to conserve as much energy as possible.
Yeah.
So I feel like I did that, a good job of that today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You did a really good job.
We also shared an incredible story about the, stem cell gift to your father, and you mentioned that 2025 was for them.
So now, in 2027 and 2028, what are you gonna give them next?
Oh, gold medals all the way around.
I wanna do things that haven't been done before, and wanna keep it going for as long as I'm in the sport.
So be on the lookout.
It's coming.
We'll be looking.
Melissa, thank you.
Thank you
