How good is Olympian Jenna Prandini really?
In 2022 the women of team USA beat the world in the 4x100m relay. That’s not a big surprise at first glance. However, their team did not have Gabby Thomas, Sha’Carri Richardson, Aleia Hobbs, or even Tamari Davis on it. All of those women represent both the present and the future of sprinting for the red, white, and blue. But amongst all the ladies who did win, there was only 1 woman who had ever competed on the world stage before. Jenna Prandini was there, racing team USA into the lead, and winning the world for America in the process. It’s a good thing she did, because Shericka Jackson was gaining really fast on team USA during the anchor leg. So they needed every bit of the lead that Jenna handed off to get the victory. The truth is that Jenna Prandini is a forgotten superstar who has been running professionally for quite some time now. But she always figures out how to make her presence felt on the track, because she’s been winning sprint races for a very long time, even if we haven’t been paying attention.
How good was Jenna Prandini in high school?
Jenna Prandini stands out because she is the only woman to make a final at the USA championships in 2023, who was even at that same event back in 2016. That was the year when she made her first Olympics, and she has been one of the world’s best sprinters ever since. Her dominance started way back at the high school level. Where she won championships in the state of California as the fastest 100 meter runner in the state. Keep in mind California is one of the most competitive states for high school track and field. In fact, she was so talented that she was the USATF Junior National champion in the long jump, while she was still in high school! That is a competition that also includes college freshmen.
How good was Jenna Prandini in college?
Jenna’s high school performances were good enough to get her a scholarship to run for the Oregon Ducks, the greatest women’s sprinting powerhouse throughout all of the 2010s. She actually didn’t compete much as a freshman, likely due to injuries, but as a sophomore she actually ran for the first time in championship meets, winning the Pac-12 in the 100, and making the NCAA championship final both indoors in the 60 meter dash, and outdoors in the 100 meter! Her next season was more of the same. She won the Pac-12 and made the NCAA finals after it. But in 2014 she didn’t just make the finals of the 100, she did it in the 200 as well finishing 3rd and second in the NCAA! She had to run a full second PR from her high school times to do it. Which is ironic, because as a pro that became her signature event. However, she still had unfinished business in the 100 meter dash. The year 2015 was her final one sprinting in college, and during that season she won the NCAA championship in that event by one hundredth of a second. Immediately thereafter she became the American champion in the 200 meter dash. It was after all that when Jenna Prandini turned professional signing with Puma, and she hasn’t looked back ever since.
How good is Jenna Prandini in pro track?
Jenna Prandini doesn’t have any individual medals from the major world championship events. However, she always finds a way to compete. In 2016 she made the Olympic semifinal in the 200 meter dash. And in 2017 she made the USA final of that same event. In 2018 she went third at the USA meet in the 100, but repeated as the champion in the 200 meter dash. That was a year without a World Championship meet, so she went on to win the NACAC championship in the 100 meter dash, just because she could.
Later in 2021 she made team USA for her second Olympic team in both the 100 and the 200 meter dashes. She was the only woman to make both teams and made the semifinals again in both. She also ran on the Olympic silver medal team in the 4x100 meter relay that year. So in 2022 it should no longer be a surprise that with the World Championships to be hosted on her college track of all places, she would find a way on to the team.
She made the team in the 200 meter dash, and finished in the semifinals again. That was just the back drop to her miracle leg in the 4x100 meter, because America needed every bit of the lead she handed off to emerge victorious, against the fastest collection of women’s sprinters the world has ever seen in Jamaica. They did all that with nobody except Jenna herself who had ever worn the red, white, and blue before. Team USA was not supposed to win that race, but they did. Making that gold medal perhaps her biggest accomplishment ever in her career.
The Bottom Line
The life of a short sprinter is a fast and furious one. Which is why many sprinters don’t keep running into their thirties. Usain Bolt is 37 years old right now, and he has already been retired for six years. But Jenna was on the track in 2023 in the USA 200 meter final again. It is uncertain how many races she has left to run, and she might not go down as one of the greatest to ever do it. But Jenna Prandini has to be one of the most memorable. She’s already run faster for a longer period of time, than most pros ever do. And that has to make her one of the most talented sprinters we’ve ever seen in my book.
LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, RUN GOOD.
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