{"id":29314,"date":"2016-07-10T08:04:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T15:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/high-jumper-inika-mcpherson-stands-out-with-look-talent\/"},"modified":"2016-07-10T08:04:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T15:04:15","slug":"high-jumper-inika-mcpherson-stands-out-with-look-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/high-jumper-inika-mcpherson-stands-out-with-look-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"High-jumper Inika McPherson stands out with look, talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

EUGENE, Ore. \u2014<\/strong> Calling Inika McPherson the most unlikely of Olympians wouldn\u2019t be much of a stretch.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s 5-foot-4 and competes in the high jump \u2014 a discipline usually dominated by taller women.<\/p>\n

McPherson is also only a few months removed from a 21-month suspension after testing positive for cocaine.<\/p>\n

And yet, the 29-year-old will be on the U.S. team in Rio de Janeiro \u2014 and sure to stand out, thanks to her blue-striped hair, a pair of red lips tattooed on the side of her face and a made-for-the-movies story that included washing dishes to make ends meet while she was waiting for the drug ban to elapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone should march to their own beat, just really live life. But I came to the point where I was harming myself and my dreams,\u201d said McPherson, who finished third at track and field trials by leaping 6-4 \u2014 or one foot higher than she stands.<\/p>\n

That positive test was jarring \u2014 to her and her family. Her life at that point was moving \u201ctoo fast,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

McPherson tested positive after an in-competition sample she provided on June 29, 2014, at the USA championships in Sacramento, California. Her suspension was announced that December, with the ban made retroactive to July 27, 2014. It gave her a chance to return in time for trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a surprise to me. I was like, \u2018What is going on? No way this can be happening,\u2019\u201d said McPherson, who lives and trains in Houston. \u201cIt was something that happened that I really learned from. Don\u2019t ever put yourself in that position or in that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toughest part was having a conversation with her mom \u2014 that she didn\u2019t have a drug problem, that she was just as perplexed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was concerned at the beginning, \u2018What\u2019s going on in your life that you would test for that?\u2019\u201d McPherson explained. \u201cBut we sat down and talked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to put it on the people I was around, but I turned into one of those people. I was hanging out with the wrong crew, going a different route. I\u2019m thankful for that whole experience, because I can share that so others won\u2019t have to go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was painful to be away from a sport she fell in love with in fourth grade, after a gym teacher set up a makeshift high jump. They would run into the gym from the doorway and bound over the bar.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s always been good, real good. She went to the University of California, where she finished fourth at NCAA indoor championships as a senior. Everything was progressing on an upward trajectory \u2014 made the U.S. team for 2011 worlds, U.S. indoor runner-up in 2012, outdoor runner-up in \u201813 and outdoor champion in \u201814.<\/p>\n

Then, she tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more, \u2018what\u2019s going to happen now?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McPherson worked at a temp agency and frequently drew assignments at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston as a dish washer.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, people who didn\u2019t know her would ask: What do you want to do one day?<\/p>\n

Her answer never wavered, even if it drew some raised eyebrows: Make the Olympic team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never took my eye off the focus or the dream of what I wanted to accomplish,\u201d McPherson said.<\/p>\n

It was hard for her and her coach, Patrick Pyle, to always find a training facility. So they improvised in a gym at 24-Hour Fitness, simulating the high jump by running up to the basketball rim and trying to grab it. Turns out, McPherson has such hops she can actually dunk a tennis ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose to go those unorthodox routes to keep things very fresh,\u201d Pyle explained. \u201cThat way you didn\u2019t have the stress and the everyday routine of being at the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever they were doing certainly worked. McPherson finished third behind 32-year-old Chaunte Lowe and 18-year-old Vashti Cunningham, the daughter of longtime NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham.<\/p>\n

McPherson had even more pressure because, being away so long, she didn\u2019t have the Olympic qualifying standard of 6-4. She had to hit that at trials to secure her spot.<\/p>\n

Not a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t concerned at all, because I had (reached the standard) a couple of times before I got here,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cI was going to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McPherson is hardly your average height for a high jumper. Consider: Lowe is 5-9 and Cunningham 6-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to work a little harder than the taller jumpers,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing\u2019s for sure: She stands out. She dyes her hair whatever color strikes her and went with blue for the trials because, \u201cI looked around and saw a lot of blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also has more than 30 tattoos, including the eye-catching lips ink. She said it represents how a mother or a grandmother will kiss you on the cheek.<\/p>\n

Soon, she wants to add another tattoo \u2014 the Olympic rings.<\/p>\n

Her family also is scrambling to get tickets to Rio. They don\u2019t want to miss this show.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family was supportive \u2014 that\u2019s how I really made it through these two years,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cNo way I could have done this alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, you have to ask for help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EUGENE, Ore. \u2014 Calling Inika McPherson the most unlikely of Olympians wouldn\u2019t be much of a stretch. She\u2019s 5-foot-4 and competes in the high jump \u2014 a discipline usually dominated by taller women. McPherson is also only a few months removed from a 21-month suspension after testing positive for cocaine. And yet, the 29-year-old will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":29315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29314"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}