Education
He competed at 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished eighth in the long jump with a jump of 8.06 m. At his first World Championships he again finished eighth, after sustaining a hamstring tear.
He competed at 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished eighth in the long jump with a jump of 8.06 m. At his first World Championships he again finished eighth, after sustaining a hamstring tear.
His personal best of 8.74 meters, set in 2009, makes him the joint fifth best jumper of all time. Phillips has also competed in the 60 and 100-meter dashes. His personal record for the 100 m is 10.06 seconds and his time of 6.47 seconds over 60 m ranks among the top twenty fastest ever.
Phillips was a promising sprinter in his early days, but concentrated on the triple jump while at University of Kentucky, before switching to the long jump after moving to Arizona State University in 2000.
He was the best American performer in the event. The indoor championship event was a close contest, with Phillips only beating Spain"s Yago Lamela by a centimeter.
His winning jump of 8.59 meters was the fourth biggest in Olympic history, after Bob Beamon (1968) and Carl Lewis (1988, 1992). His success continued at the next two World Championships.
Taking the gold medal at the 2005 Helsinki event, and winning bronze in Osaka two years later.
A jump that put Phillips in the all-time performers top 10, despite a 1.2 metres/second headwind. He repeated the feat in Daegu in 2011 with a leap of 8.45 m. During the championships in Daegu, Phillips was assigned the bib number 1111.
After winning, Phillips proudly pointed to the number appropriate for finishing first in four championships.
A car accident just before the start of the 2012 outdoor season left him with back and neck injuries. Further to this, an Achilles tendon injury recurred and instead of preparing for the 2012 London Olympics, Phillips opted to undergo surgery to prolong his career.
At the 2013 World Athletics Championships, in Moscow, Phillips placed 11th in the long jump with a jump of 7.88 m and announced this was his last competition and retirement. Personal bests
All information from IAAF Profile.
Phillips finished fourth in the long jump at the United States. Olympic Trials, meaning he would not compete at the Beijing Olympics and would not defend his Olympic title.