COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Nine-year-old Jordan Hampton is royalty.
“How do you like wearing that crown?” Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen aksed her.
“It’s fun. It’s funny. Everyone laughs,” Jordan said.
She has a gold medal to go along with her crown. She picked it up at the recent Junior Olympic Games.
Jordan throws the javelin farther than anyone her age, and she owes it all to very hard work.
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“A lot of long days here on the track,” Jordan’s father and Throw 2 Win coach Cornell Hampton said. “But it’s all worth it when you have two young ladies who accomplish their goals and become national champions.”
Channel 2 Action News first introduced you to Jordan and big sister Jasmine a year ago.
Jordan had just finished first and Jasmine second in their divisions at the 2022 AAU Junior Olympics.
In 2023, they finished first and first.
Jasmine is now enrolled at Samford University in Birmingham, where she was awarded a scholarship for track and field. Her next goal is to make Team USA and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It feels great being here,” Jasmine said. “2028 should be my year where I should be up and closer to the top, if not on top.”
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Jordan’s winning throw at the ‘23 junior games was 81 feet, eight inches. Next year she plans to fly way over that.
“I want to try to hit 150 (feet),” Jordan said.
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Hampton said javelin is an official high school sport in the neighboring states of Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee, but not Georgia.
He is working to change that so more athletes can get college scholarships like his daughter did.
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