MGCCC’s Brittney Reese begins quest for second gold medal

Brittany Reese brings her improved body and mind to the world stage Tuesday night at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Athletics Hall of Famer and defending Olympic gold medalist in the women's long jump has returned with a vengeance from a 2013 injury. She tore the labrum in her hip, needed surgery then rushed herself back into action.

"I feel like the hip injury really messed me up because I know what I am capable of and to see myself in that component, and to see myself not make a final, and to see myself not even jump 7 meters really put myself in a bad position," she said. "I am a competitor, I like to win and I was losing, so that was something that I didn't like. So it put me in a bad position to where I thought that I was going to retire."

Reese, who played basketball at Perkinston before becoming an NCAA champion at Ole Miss, credits her sports psychologist with getting her mental game in shape following that demoralizing time. They are trying to package three huge accomplishments into one performance.

Win a gold medal. Break the American record. Break the world record.

She jumped 23 feet, 11.75 inches, a career best, to win the U.S. Olympic trials in July. She needs to tack on another 3.75 inches onto that to break the American mark, which would likely be good enough for gold. The world record is 24 feet, 8.25 inches.

"I can finally extend a little further than I have been able to in the past years, and I have worked really hard on my landing," Reese said. "I feel like the landing was one of the most critical parts of my jumps, and I feel like once I got that together everything else would just fall into place."

Reese jumps in the women's long jump preliminaries. It starts at 7:05 p.m. CT, and she's jumping in Group B. A jump of 6.75 meters (22 feet, 1.75 inches) automatically qualifies for the finals on Wednesday. At least 12 jumpers from the 38-person field will advance.

The event can be watched online at http://stream.nbcolympics.com/track-and-field-women-long-jump-B

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCAthletics on Twitter and BulldogLIVE on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.