Harrison first made his mark on the global track and field scene when he placed sixth in the decathlon at the World Junior Championships, held in Eugene, OR in 2014. The following year, he took the gold medal at the Pan Am under-20 Championships in Canada.
In 2019, having transitioned to the senior ranks, he earned selection for the world championships in Doha, Qatar where he placed 14th, a stepping stone, it would have seemed, to gaining selection for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. At the Trials for those Games (held in 2021), all was proceeding according to plan, until Harrison tore his plantar fascia during the pole vault competition. With two disciplines still remaining, the javelin and the 1500m, he fought on, ultimately placing fourth, one heartbreaking position shy of Olympic selection.
Harrison’s next major championship outing was the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, where he placed seventh, coming after having won his first US title in that year’s Trials and setting his PB of 8630 points. Although injury forced a DNF at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March of this year, his third place finish at the Olympic Trials with a score of 8384 indicates that the portents are good for Paris and his first appearance on the Olympic stage.
Paris Result:
7th place (8,538 points).