As Emmanuel Ihemeje prepares for his last jump at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, he turns towards the crowd at Hayward Field and starts to clap.
As the cheering intensifies, Ihemeje starts his first skip. He runs down the track and gains so much momentum that if you blink, you’ll miss him. Once he gets close to the sand pit, he leaps off of his right foot and stamps his footprint clearly into the pit.
The officials scurry to his landing-spot and announce the distance: 54 feet, 10 inches (16.71 meters). After six rounds of competition, he had saved his best jump for last and was crowned the men’s Pac-12 triple jump champion.
Once he realized he won, he points to the scoreboard with his number flashing across the screen. With a big smile across his face, it hit him that he has the potential to be the best in the world.
“Each jump I was trying to add pieces to the puzzle,” Ihemeje said. “On the last jump, I got my confidence and I was ready to enjoy the ride. Once I landed and I heard the crowd cheering, I knew I was good.”
After soaking in the win and listening to the music of the crowd’s cheers, Ihemeje wraps himself in his blanket that looks like a burrito.
“It’s my luck,” he said. “I bring it with me to every meet. It was a gift from a special person and since receiving it, I’ve won back to back championships. It goes with me everywhere.”
Ihemeje was born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, where he fell in love with the sport. His career exploded early on.
During the European Junior U20 Athletic Championships in Grosseto, Italy in 2017, triple jump indoor world record holder and two-time world champion Teddy Tamgho invited Ihemeje to join his training group in France.
After moving to France to further his skills, he followed his family to the United States two years later. He settled in Los Angeles and enrolled at Cal State Northridge. However, his experience in California only lasted a few months due to the pandemic.
Ihemeje quickly found himself attending classes at his new school remotely and practicing alone. When he decided another change was in order, he entered the NCAA transfer portal and found himself in Eugene.
One of the biggest reasons why Ihemeje chose the University of Oregon was because of his mentor and coach, Robert Johnson.
“Basically, he is the brain; I’m just the legs and the arms,” Ihemeje said. “I just execute whatever he tells me because I put all my trust in him.”
Their relationship has generated huge wins from the start.
During Ihemeje’s first competition with Oregon, he broke the indoor school record with a mark of 53 10.25 at the Razorback Invitational in 2021. A little over a year into his Oregon career, he’s a two-time indoor national champion, an outdoor national champion, a Pac-12 champion and an Olympian.
“I don’t think there is a ceiling for that guy,” Johnson said of Ihemeje. “Everything that I’ve asked him to do, he’s been able to do and he’s done it with a smile on his face.”
Ihemeje is expected to compete at the World Championships here in Eugene in late July.
“It’s just a calculated approach with EJ and making sure we continue to nurture and continue to put him in a position to be successful,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure we bring him along slowly because his future is very bright. We could be greedy and try to get it all now, but we are slowly but surely plotting the future out.”
Ihemeje has a strong competitive nature and consistently strives to better his work, which is why he fits in so well into Oregon’s program.
“I eat pressure for breakfast,” Ihemeje said. “I like competition, I like being challenged, and I know I can keep improving. It’s beautiful being a part of this team.”
At the age of 23, he’s built a strong resume and isn’t even close to finished.
“Coming here was the best choice I’ve ever made in my life,” Ihemeje said. “It’s a whole different vibe, a whole different environment that I really love and really fits me as a person. It was not a miracle, but it was something great that happened in my life.”
