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'It’s been a journey': Parents of track and field star Christian Taylor recall childhood days

They said his first races were on the stairs leading to his bedroom.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — His father summed it up perfectly. 

“It’s been a journey, it’s been an amazing journey,” Christian Taylor's dad, Ian said.

When Ian and Stephanie Taylor watch their son Christian compete in track and field, they think back to the little boy racing his sister around the house he grew up in in Fayetteville.

“He’d skip a few steps and beat her.” He said. “He’d triple jump all around the house.”

His first races were on the stairs leading to his bedroom. 

“It was always some competition going on around this house,” Stephanie laughed.

Christian was good at every sport he tried growing up – but eventually chose track and field and poured all he had into it. 

He attended Our Lady of Victory Catholic School in Tyrone, Georgia and first learned how to triple jump. At Sandy Creek High School, he played football and was on the track and field teams. 

He set state high school records in the long jump, triple jump and the 400-meter dash.

“There was something out there for him beyond football, basketball, and baseball,” his dad said. “Don’t get me wrong, they are all great sports but track and field is also there.”

He became the best in the world at the 2012 Summer Games in London where he won a gold medal in the triple jump.

His mom said: “To this day, I don’t quite know how to explain it. I get tears each time I think of it.”  

She said to see your son be best in the world is so emotional. 

“In that moment you are thinking that of all the people who have competed, how did that happen. It is a reflection of his years of consistent hard work and dedication,” his dad said.

Christian Taylor won another Olympic gold medal in Rio four years later. He’s won three world championships and he’s still at the top of the sport.  

The Taylors packed up their Team Christian Taylor t-shirts to wear in Doha, Qatar during the 2019 Track and Field World Championships, as their son competes for another world title.

The Taylors feel and appreciate the love and support from Georgia.  

“We are grateful,” Ian Taylor said. “It is recognition for all our or son’s work.” 

His mom added: “This is what it is all about.”

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