Soon he’ll be seeing them face-to-face.

With his breakthrough triple-jump performance at last week’s NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in Iowa, the University of New Mexico All-American landed himself in the field for the upcoming U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore. The event, which begins June 28, will pit Ross against hotshots such as Taylor, the 2011 triple jump world champion, and Claye, a world bronze medalist. Ross used to watch videos of those two on YouTube.

“That’s when I was trying to get where they are,” said Ross, who will be a senior at UNM this fall. “Now they’re my competition.”

Up to three Americans can qualify for the Olympics, and Ross — who charts as the 11th best American jumper in this year’s world rankings — can already envision himself wearing the red, white and blue in London. For Ross, grandiose goals are the only ones worth setting, and his bold predictions and swagger have become well-known within the UNM track program.

“They always joke around because I’m always talking, always saying I’m going to do something,” Ross said. “But I usually do it.”

A week before the NCAA meet, for instance, Ross declared he would make it to the Olympic Trials.

“Floyd will just throw out ridiculous numbers, and it amazes me that he hits them,” said UNM assistant coach Austin Brobst. “I told him it would take 16.60 (meters) to make it to the Olympic Trials, and he jumps 16.61.”

Ross bested his personal record by a staggering 3 feet at the NCAA meet en route to a national runner-up finish. The 22-year-old from Leavenworth, Kan., explains his monumental improvement by the fact that he’s still learning the nuances of his event. He didn’t join track until his final year of high school, when the 6-foot-1-inch former basketball guard was left searching for a new sport.

“Basketball was my life. I got cut my senior year from basketball and I was just like, ‘Let’s just see what this track thing is,’” Ross said.

Upon graduation, he enrolled at Barton (Kan.) Community College, where his jumps kept progressing. He won regional junior college titles and qualified for the national junior college championships.

But Ross had no idea what to expect when he transferred to UNM last year, only that he wanted to make the most of his Division I opportunity.

“I think I found a good school,” he said with a laugh.

For a trip to London, Brobst said Ross must at least improve to the Olympic “A” standard — which is another 59 centimeters, or almost 2 feet, better than his best.

But with Ross — whom Brobst describes as “clutch” for his dramatic tendency to deliver his best performances on his final attempt — nothing is unthinkable.

Just ask the self-described big talker himself.

“I feel like it’s unlimited. No limit,” Ross said of his growth potential. “Maybe I’ll PR by another three feet, four feet, five, (get a) world record.

“I put no limits on myself. I’ve just got to keep training and working hard.”
— This article appeared on page D8 of the Albuquerque Journal