“It’s time. I’ve made teams – a lot of teams. I’ve been making teams since my sophomore year of college…Now, it’s time to get medals. Now, it’s time to go into competitions and leave with hardware. That’s where my mindset is now. I know I’m capable of doing it.”

Quanesha Burks is the 2022 indoor and outdoor U.S. women’s long jump champion and a 2021 Olympian. At the U.S. Championships, she jumped a personal best of 7.06 meters (That’s 23 feet, 2 inches). Heading into the World Championships in a week, she is ranked No. 7 in the world and the top American in the event. She is one of the most positive people I’ve had the chance to meet within the past year. As you’ll hear in this episode, she’s always had to work hard to make a name for herself and care for those she loved. Last summer, I wrote a story for Sports Illustrated on her since she put out a tweet about how she started at Mcdonald’s and now made it to The Olympics. Through it all, she’s continued to showcase her personality and humor with now more than 65,000 followers on Instagram and 46,000 followers on TikTok.

You can read my feature on her from Sports Illustrated in 2021 here.

You can now listen to our conversation on The CITIUS MAG Podcast. Catch the latest episode of the podcast on Apple Podcasts. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify.

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