A NEAR MISS : USC’s Yvette Bates, With No Triple Jump in the Olympics, Fails by a Fraction to Make Trip to Seoul in Long Jump

For Yvette Bates, former USC track star, last month’s long jump final in the Olympic track and field trials was a heartbreaking experience.

Bates finished in a three-way tie for second but only the top three make the Olympic team and the women she had tied beat her out because their next-best jumps had been better than hers.

There are lots of fourth-place finishers in the Olympic trials, but Bates’ near miss had a few interesting twists.

Going into the trials, Bates was not considered a top contender to make the team as a long jumper.

Her personal best of 21 feet 4 inches was not one of the United States’ top 10 jumps. She was also coming off a disappointing non-placing finish in this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. long jump final, which ended her USC career.

Bates was better known as a triple jumper. She is, after all, a former world record-holder, with a personal best of 45-3. And she ranks third in the world this year at 44-9.

But the triple jump is not an Olympic event for women.

So, Bates, 22, went into the trials trying to make a name for herself as a long jumper.

Heading the list of contenders were Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American record-holder; Sheila Echols, champion of The Athletics Congress, and Carol Lewis, sister of Carl Lewis and a 1984 Olympian. Bates was a longshot.

Even so, it hurt to lose. “I can handle the disappointment better now, but I still get emotional whenever I think about it,” she said nearly a month later.

On the first windy day of the competition, Bates’ easily qualified for the finals with a jump of 21-2 3/4, nearly equaling her best effort.

But after the first three rounds of the next day’s finals, Bates’ best jump of 21-3 1/2 left her out of the top three. Joyner-Kersee led with 24-5 1/2, followed by Echols’ 22-7 and Lewis’ 22-5.

“I was jumping well in the first three rounds,” Bates said. “But then Carol made that jump of 22-5, which mentally raised the qualifying mark I thought would be needed to make the team.

“I had to mentally re-prepare for the final three jumps, because I knew 22 1/2 was within my means if I did everything right.”

On her fourth jump, Bates went 21-8, the longest she had ever jumped.

“I was getting closer, but I still had a ways to go in order to overtake Lewis,” she said.

But that jump set the stage for her moment in the Indianapolis sun. On her fifth try, Bates got off a wind-aided jump of 22-7, tying her with Echols for second behind Joyner-Kersee going into the sixth and final round.

“I will never forget that feeling,” said Bates. “I knew that I had to go for it on my fifth jump and not wait until my last jump.

“As I started my approach, I knew something was special. I was doing everything that I had worked on with my coach correctly. I hit the (takeoff) board well and my legs came up real good. When I had jumped 21-8, I didn’t hold my legs long enough, but on this one I did. I knew once I landed that I had made the jump .

“When the mark went up as 6.88 (meters), I just couldn’t control myself. I was so happy and excited. I thought for a moment, ‘This is it. I am on my way to Seoul.’ ”

But Bates knew that Lewis still had to jump.

“My elation lasted probably all of 15 seconds,” she said. “But it was a good 15 seconds before I started worrying about her last jump.”

With the pressure on, Lewis responded. She, too, jumped 22-7, knocking Bates out of the top three.

“I can remember every detail,” Bates said. “All kinds of things went through my mind as she started her jump.

“I knew that she was a top-notch competitor and that she was capable of getting off a good jump. But when she landed, it didn’t look as far as the other jumps and she didn’t look happy as if she had got off a good jump. But then they announced her jump as 22-7. I was crushed.”

Bates, though, still had one more jump.

“I tried to get myself together after (Lewis’) jump,” she said. “I tried to talk myself into believing that destiny was right there before me, but I was just too scared. I could not relax.”

And so, Bates fell short, jumping 22-1. Good, but not quite good enough.

“I gave it my best under the circumstances, but it just didn’t measure up to my last jump,” she said. “After seeing the mark, I just started to hurt all over. As soon as I could get away, I dashed over to the tents and cried.”

Bates’ coach, Mike Bailey, who recently was named USC’s women’s track coach, replacing Fred LaPlante, was pleased with her effort.

“Yvette performed above what I had expected,” he said. “Honestly, I felt that 22-3 would be about her limit. She jumped above what I thought she would do.

“She was so focused throughout. Her whole series of jumps was great. It will probably be another 50 years before three people jump the same exact distance in a meet of this importance, again.”

Bailey was especially happy with Bates’ 22-7 effort.

“I knew that she was going to get off a good jump before her 22-7,” he said. “I was only worried that she might foul, because of the tail wind, once she was on the runway. But, she really attacked the board and her jump was picture perfect.

“When something like that happens, an all-together feeling comes over you. You can’t breath nor talk, you just stand there waiting for what mark flashes on the screen.”

Even so, adjusting to being left off the Olympic team has been difficult for Bates.

“I couldn’t stay with the other athletes afterwards,” she said. “I stayed with my coach and tried to get my mind off of everything but it didn’t work too well.”

Said Bailey: “It’s a tough thing to deal with, but she has had a great year. Her future is nothing but great because in just one year she has made herself a top-notch long jumper.”

Bates was especially hoping that she would be able to join former USC teammates, heptathlete Wendy Brown and hurdler Leslie Maxie, on the Olympic team.

“I really wanted to make the team with them,” Bates said. “They had both earned their spots on the team days before I even had to compete. I knew that they both would make it and once they did I was excited that I could join them and jealous that they already had done it.”

Bates and Brown have competed against each other since high school--in the triple jump, long jump and hurdles. However, the two former world triple jump record-holders had to compete in different events in order to qualify for the Olympics.

“Wendy and I have always competed against each other, but I was pulling for her so much when she was competing in the heptathlon,” said Bates. “I cried once I saw that she had made the team.”

Bates, though, feels at least slightly cheated about having no chance to try to make the team as a triple jumper.

“The triple jump should be an Olympic event,” she said. “But I know why it is not. For one, the Eastern Bloc countries do not compete in the triple jump regularly so it is not acknowledged worldwide, but I think that they would be more serious about the event if it was in the Olympics.

“They should have the triple jump as a demonstration event for the world. That would make the event more important and in due time it would be an official event.”

That’s not the case, though, and Bates has to go on with her regular life. She plans to complete the requirements for her education degree at USC this year while continuing with her track career.

And in four years, she hopes to try again to gain a spot on the Olympic team with the benefit of experience from this year’s trials and newly earned respect as a long jumper.