Published on Show Me Mizzou Dec. 19, 2024
Story by Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
Sterling Scott seems born to triple jump. His mother, Colleen, once represented the Jamaican national team in the event. His father, Andre, was a seven-time All-America triple jumper at
Auburn and is currently an assistant coach for the Ole Miss track team.
Still, his parents never pressured him to compete in track, and Scott wanted to do his own thing, so he focused on soccer in his younger years. It wasn’t until he reached high school and realized he wasn’t receiving much college recruiting attention in soccer that he decided to join the track team.
“I tried my hardest to run from it,” Scott says, “but it was my destiny.”
In the triple jump, athletes barrel down a runway and jump twice off one foot and a third time off the other foot. Scott took off in the event when he once mistimed his approach during a meet and leaped right, right, left, rather than the opposite. The happy accident allowed him to soar 6 feet beyond his previous best.
A track star was born.
Scott considered competing in college for his father at Ole Miss but decided leaving his home state would help him grow personally. Mizzou assistant coach Iliyan Chamov, a longtime friend of Andre Scott, was thrilled to get a chance to coach the still raw but explosive athlete.
“I see the long jump as an ax and the triple jump as a samurai sword,” Chamov says. “It takes a little more technique to execute the triple jump perfectly. You cannot just swing it and split wood.”
As a freshman last year, Scott honed his technique and earned All-America honors indoors and outdoors by posting a top leap of nearly 53 feet. In August, he represented the USA in the U20 World Championships in Peru and finished fifth with a leap of 52 feet 9 inches.
Scott has made a name for himself with those results and through a playful social media game that fills a previously untapped market: track humor. His teammates frequently make suggestions for posts and ask to appear in his videos, which routinely draw thousands of likes.
The once reluctant jumper has become an ambassador of track and field.
“His social media channel is very entertaining, and it’s coming from a love of the sport,” Chamov says. “This is not about, ‘Look at me, I want to be popular on social media.’ It’s the opposite. You do what you enjoy, and everything else falls into place.”
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