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Jess Davis, a former Central Connecticut State University women’s track and field athlete, will compete in the summer Olympic Games in Paris. Davis earned a spot on Team USA by placing fourth in the modern pentathlon at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. She will compete with Team USA from Aug. 8 to 11.
Davis competed in the pole vault on Central’s women’s track and field team for two seasons and scored points for the Blue Devils at a pair of Northeast Conference Championships. The standout vaulter still holds the program record in the outdoor pole vault (2.90m) set in 2011, along with the indoor pole vault mark (2.99m) set in 2012. Davis placed sixth in the 2012 NEC indoor championships by clearing 2.90m and helped the women’s team place fifth at the 2012 outdoor championships with a height of 2.75m.
"She was a very focused athlete," says cross country and track and field head coach Eric Blake. “Even then you could tell that she was driven to maximize her potential as an athlete in whatever event that might be. We are very excited for her and look forward to watching her compete and cheering her on!”
A Connecticut native who graduated from Nonnewaug High School, Davis holds a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Central.
Davis comes from a family of athletes. Her mother was an elite equestrian and her father a top triathlete. Following her time with the Blue Devils, Davis competed in triathlons before turning her focus to modern pentathlon. The modern pentathlon is a five-sport event modeled after the traditional pentathlon event of the ancient Olympic Games, but with the “modern” sports of fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running.
Davis’s list of accolades in the sport is long and distinguished. She and teammate Brendan Anderson finished eighth in modern pentathlon mixed relay at the 2023 Pan Am Games. She has competed in the world championships six times as an individual and was a three-time women’s team member and a two-time mixed relay competitor. She has competed in the World Cup for pentathlon in both 2022 and 2023, and in the summer of 2023, she won the épée national fencing title in Division 1A, just one level below elite fencing.
The 2024 Olympics in Paris begin preliminary competition on July 24, and the Opening Ceremony will take place on July 26. Davis will begin competition with the fencing ranking round on Thursday, Aug. 8 with semifinal competition to be held on Saturday, Aug. 10. The gold medal will be decided on Sunday, Aug. 11, the final day of the Games.
Davis’s quest to become the first American to win an Olympic modern pentathlon medal since Emily deRiel in 2000 (silver) can be followed at https://www.teamusa.com/.