While Jasmine Moore may have left Tokyo without a medal, she walked away with something far more precious: love.
The 23-year-old Team USA track and field star found romance in the heart of the Olympic Village, kindling a relationship with sprinter Joseph Fahnbulleh.
Three years later, their bond is as strong as ever, and both athletes are back on the world’s biggest stage, this time in Paris, with gold medals in their sights, according to People.
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“Our finals are on the same night, for long jump and the 200-meter. So I’m like, ‘Lord, please, let’s just both get medals that day!’ ” she tells PEOPLE. “Hopefully all of our families can just party and go to dinner and stuff like that.”
Jasmine Moore, who competes in both the women’s long jump and triple jump, is set to take the track on Friday, Aug. 2 at Stade de France for the triple jump qualifications.
In June, she became the first American woman to qualify for both events at the Olympics, and if she medals in the triple jump, she’ll be the first American woman to ever do so.
Though she came up short in Tokyo, she met fellow athlete Joseph Fahnbulleh, who competes for Liberia.
At the time, Moore was transferring from the University of Georgia to the University of Florida, where Fahnbulleh attended.
“We knew of each other [because] track’s a small world. I was like, ‘Okay, I know that he goes to Florida, and I’m going there, and I know no one else here,’ ” she recalls. “We hung out in Tokyo the whole time, and then when I got to Florida, we hung out. And now we’re dating.”
Moore is set to cheer for Team Liberia during her boyfriend Fahnbulleh’s event while rooting for Team USA in all other competitions.
“It’s been fun. I feel like our conversations though lately have been super dry, because we don’t want to stress each other out,” she says. “We’re like, ‘Are you okay? Are you good?’ But I mean, he understands it and we talk about it. I get to see his progression as an athlete, as a person, and as a sprinter. Obviously jumping is different, so [I get to] see the things that he has to do differently to prepare.”
Moore, a Texas native, never envisioned a career in track and field when she began running in fifth or sixth grade.
It wasn’t until middle school that she discovered jumping, which set her life’s course.
“I hated it. I remember my first practice, it was on my birthday, and I left,” she recalls. “I called my grandparents to snitch on my mom and dad for making me run in the Texas heat. I thought it was horrible.”
Despite struggling in Tokyo, Moore attributes those challenges to the upheaval in her life as she was transferring schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reflecting on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Moore says she was simply happy to be there, but now she’s hungry for more.
“This will be their first time [in Paris]. It’s been my first time, so I’m just excited that we all get to experience it together,” she says. “I’m super close to my parents. They know that I do track and I do good at it, but not all of them get to watch me all the time. So I’m like, ‘I’m kind of good! I made it to the Olympics!’ To have them all here, I’m just really excited.”
This year, she fully enjoyed the opening ceremony, even snapping a photo with LeBron James. She has also been embracing the Olympic Village’s pin-trading tradition, proudly showing off her collection.
Despite the daunting challenges, Moore indicated that she remains determined, leaning on her faith and family for support.
Just three weeks ago, she felt discouraged, but now she is pushing through and dreaming big.
“There have been a lot of times this year where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ It’s a lot, mentally and physically . . . I just felt really defeated a couple weeks ago. With track, it’s like stats. So if I don’t see the magic number, then I get sometimes really in my head,” she says. “[But] I’m just very thankful to be doing both my events, and I just want to compete to the best of my ability and really give it all.”
