Career
Phillips was a promising sprinter in his early days but concentrated on the triple jump while at University of Kentucky before switching to the long jump after moving to Arizona State University in 2000. He competed at 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished eighth in the long jump with a jump of 8.06 m. He was the best American performer in the event. At his first World Championships he again finished eighth.
He came to prominence in 2003 when he won both the IAAF indoor and outdoor World Championships. The indoor championship event was a close contest, with Phillips only beating Spain's Yago Lamela by a centimeter. He won the outdoor title with a winning margin of four centimeters over James Beckford of Jamaica.
In the run up to the 2004 Athens Olympics, Phillips was ranked number one in the world, and he won the gold medal by a margin of 12 cm over his compatriot John Moffitt. His winning jump of 8.59 meters was the fourth biggest in Olympic history, after Bob Beamon (1968) and Carl Lewis (1988, 1992).
His success continued at the next two World Championships. Taking the gold medal at the 2005 Helsinki event, and winning bronze in Osaka two years later.
Phillips finished fourth in the long jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials, meaning he would not compete at the Beijing Olympics and would not defend his Olympic title.
On June 7, 2009, Phillips won the long jump at the Prefontaine Classic with a personal-best third jump of 8.74 m, defeating 2008 Olympic gold medalist Irving Saladino. A jump that put Phillips in the all-time performers top 10, despite a 1.2 metres/second headwind. He won the US Championships later that month, giving him another chance to reach the podium at the World Championships.
At the 2009 World Athletics Championships, in Berlin, Phillips won the gold in the long jump with a jump of 8.54 m. He repeated the feat in Daegu in 2011 with a leap of 8.45 m. During the championships in Daegu, Phillips was assigned the bib number 1111. After winning, Phillips proudly pointed to the number appropriate for finishing first in four championships.
A car accident just before the start of the 2012 outdoor season left him with back and neck injuries. Further to this, an Achilles tendon injury recurred and instead of preparing for the 2012 London Olympics, Phillips opted to undergo surgery to prolong his career.
Read more about this topic: Dwight Phillips
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)