EUGENE, Ore. -- After advancing through the preliminary round of the men's long jump on Saturday, Marquise Goodwin said it was his dream to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring, both of which "are very hard to attain.''
That's especially true for Goodwin now. One, he's a receiver for the Buffalo Bills, who have never won a Super Bowl and haven't been to the playoffs in 16 years. Two, despite having had the two longest leaps in the world earlier this year, he failed to make the U.S. Olympic team in Sunday's trials final. Goodwin finished seventh with a jump of 27 feet, ¾ inches, more than a foot short of Jeffery Henderson's winning jump of 28 2 ¼ inches.
"At the time, it's frustrating, but you really can't dwell on that,'' Goodwin said of not making his second Olympic team. "Life is too good to harp on a situation like that. Maybe at the time I can be a little disappointed, but now I'm alive, and there is so much more to look forward to.''
Such as the football season.
"I'll take a few days off, get my mind right and start getting ready for football,'' Goodwin said. "Camp is less than a month away.''
Goodwin barely reached the final round and placed 12th of the 12 qualifiers Saturday. He said then that he wasn't worried about not making the team and pointed out that he made the 2012 U.S. team despite being 10th in the preliminary round at that year's trials. However, he said Sunday that he was not feeling good.
"I strained my hamstring a little bit yesterday,'' he said. "I did better than I expected today. I didn't expect to jump six times. I thought I would come in and do one jump. But after the first jump, I thought I would be pretty good. I just pushed through it. That's the football part of me coming through.''
It wasn't good enough. Henderson won the meet, with Jarrion Lawson second with a 28 foot, 1 ¾ inch jump. Will Claye, the bronze medalist in 2012, was third with a jump of 27 feet, 7½ inches, but since he did not have a wind-legal Olympic qualifier, he will not be on the team and Marquis Dendy will go instead.
Carl Lewis has been critical of the long jump he dominated so long, but two jumps of 28 feet were impressive, especially because they were both longer than the gold medal jump at the 2012 Games.
"Carl, I hope you're happy now,'' Goodwin said "... They're jumping better now than they ever have before.''
Goodwin, who finished 10th in the long jump at the 2012 Olympics, said he has a couple more Diamond League track and field meets in which to compete before training camp.
He isn't sure where his long jumping career will go from here, though. Would he consider working toward the 2020 Olympics?
"Who knows?'' Goodwin said. "If God gives me the opportunity, I'll take advantage of it.''