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Aug. 7—In the first two years of the Women's Decathlon World Championships, the only competitor to make the podium across both years was Eagle River's Jordyn Bruce, who earned back-to-back bronze medals.
While she is proud to be the only competitor to have achieved that feat, Bruce's sights are set on bringing home the gold as she competes in the third annual world championships this weekend at Ohio's Oberlin College.
"That's the goal," Bruce said. "I'm going to keep fighting this weekend."
The competition will take place over two days, starting with the 100-meter dash Saturday and wrapping up Sunday.
On Sunday, there will be a two-hour broadcast from 2-4 p.m. Alaska time on the All Women's Sports Network. Viewing platforms and options are available online.
Excitement is the main emotion that Bruce has been feeling ahead of this year's multi-event competition because the talent she's up against has gotten deeper and more challenging.
"It's been growing so much every year, which is amazing to see," she said. "I'm super excited to see all the competitors that I've become friends with over the years. Personally, I've been getting better every year, and I'm hoping to continue that trend and push the barriers of what I can do."
Bruce's parents flew in Thursday and will soon be joined by her grandmother, uncle and a cousin cheering her on. She's also excited about the broadcast, which is in its first year.
"It's amazing and I'm super excited to have family be able to watch from across the world," Bruce said. "There's some watch parties out there, but my family is pretty scattered about, so it's incredible to have that exposure. And knowing that people can watch it is a huge deal too and makes it more of a prominent event."
Becoming jack of all trades in track and field
Bruce didn't start competing in the multi-events until she got to college, and she was recruited for heptathlon as well as the 400 hurdles.
"I was mainly a 300 hurdler back in my high school Alaska days," she said. "I learned to jump and throw when I got to college, and then I started doing the decathlon in 2023. About that time frame, I learned discus and pole vault."
As a swimmer during her time at Eagle River High School, throwing the javelin didn't come naturally to her.
"It was definitely different," Bruce said. "It's a different type of implement than a ball, which makes it a little more difficult to throw precisely. I think javelin is the one event that took me probably the longest time to learn, not clicking much until my post-collegiate career."
Coming out of high school, her original plan was to compete in swimming at the collegiate level. Then one of her coaches from Alaska Running Academy suggested that she visit Illinois State, where they had a friend in the head coach position.
"He was like, 'You should really just do one visit for track and see how it goes and see if you like it,' and that visit ended up kind of swaying my decision to switch sports in college, and kind of was the deciding factor," Bruce said.
The 2016 Eagle River High School graduate went on to compete at Illinois State University for five years. One of her competition seasons was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she graduated in 2021.
During her brief retirement from athletics, which lasted all of eight months, she began her corporate career as an actuary, a job that she has worked on a full-time basis for the past five years with financial service provider USAA.
"It wasn't until several months down the line that I was feeling that itch that I didn't finish something," Bruce said. "So I picked up the sport again."
Bruce was a quick study. She finished second in her first-ever decathlon at the 2023 USA Women's Decathlon Championships and has had success in heptathlon events as well. Over the last 40 years, the heptathlon has been the chief multi-event for women, with men competing in decathlon at the Olympic level.
Unlike in many European countries, Bruce says, there's not a lot of support for multi-event track and field athletes after college in the United States.
"That was something that I had to battle through in terms of finding a facility that I could train at, and I didn't have a coach for a few years, so I was on my own," she said.
"I'm finally in that steady state now, where I have a facility and I have implements and I have a coach to support me," she said. "But it was a long, several-year transition to make that happen, and I hope that more and more we can get that support, at least in the U.S., that is so often found abroad."
Balancing a full-time job and being a professional athlete takes a lot. She's only able to manage it with the support of her family and employer being understanding and flexible.
"My profession requires exams for credentials as well, so I spend a lot of time studying on top of job hours and training," Bruce said. "Multi (event training) is unique in the sense that you have to be an expert in 10 events, and so the time commitment that takes is very large compared to individual events."
The idea of getting to try even more new things is what initially drew her to becoming a multi-event track and field athlete. She was primarily a hurdler in high school and dabbled in the middle distances but had no prior experience in field events.
"I think the benefit of doing multis is that you know if one thing isn't going right, you have nine other things to go focus on, and I really like knowing that when you get to the decathlon, it's the world's greatest athlete," Bruce said. "I do think that's because of the balance of getting all those different types of power, speed and endurance events. That really fascinated me to jump into it."
She still feels like hurdling is her strongest event but is encouraged by how her shot put has come along, and she's looking forward to showing off her progress in that event this weekend.
"Pole vault is also a strong suit, just because not a lot of girls have spent a lot of time on it, coming from the heptathlon, and I've been in it for a couple years now," Bruce said. "It's definitely a benefit that I have going into the weekend."
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While she is proud to be the only competitor to have achieved that feat, Bruce's sights are set on bringing home the gold as she competes in the third annual world championships this weekend at Ohio's Oberlin College.
"That's the goal," Bruce said. "I'm going to keep fighting this weekend."
The competition will take place over two days, starting with the 100-meter dash Saturday and wrapping up Sunday.
On Sunday, there will be a two-hour broadcast from 2-4 p.m. Alaska time on the All Women's Sports Network. Viewing platforms and options are available online.
Excitement is the main emotion that Bruce has been feeling ahead of this year's multi-event competition because the talent she's up against has gotten deeper and more challenging.
"It's been growing so much every year, which is amazing to see," she said. "I'm super excited to see all the competitors that I've become friends with over the years. Personally, I've been getting better every year, and I'm hoping to continue that trend and push the barriers of what I can do."
Bruce's parents flew in Thursday and will soon be joined by her grandmother, uncle and a cousin cheering her on. She's also excited about the broadcast, which is in its first year.
"It's amazing and I'm super excited to have family be able to watch from across the world," Bruce said. "There's some watch parties out there, but my family is pretty scattered about, so it's incredible to have that exposure. And knowing that people can watch it is a huge deal too and makes it more of a prominent event."
Becoming jack of all trades in track and field
Bruce didn't start competing in the multi-events until she got to college, and she was recruited for heptathlon as well as the 400 hurdles.
"I was mainly a 300 hurdler back in my high school Alaska days," she said. "I learned to jump and throw when I got to college, and then I started doing the decathlon in 2023. About that time frame, I learned discus and pole vault."
As a swimmer during her time at Eagle River High School, throwing the javelin didn't come naturally to her.
"It was definitely different," Bruce said. "It's a different type of implement than a ball, which makes it a little more difficult to throw precisely. I think javelin is the one event that took me probably the longest time to learn, not clicking much until my post-collegiate career."
Coming out of high school, her original plan was to compete in swimming at the collegiate level. Then one of her coaches from Alaska Running Academy suggested that she visit Illinois State, where they had a friend in the head coach position.
"He was like, 'You should really just do one visit for track and see how it goes and see if you like it,' and that visit ended up kind of swaying my decision to switch sports in college, and kind of was the deciding factor," Bruce said.
The 2016 Eagle River High School graduate went on to compete at Illinois State University for five years. One of her competition seasons was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she graduated in 2021.
During her brief retirement from athletics, which lasted all of eight months, she began her corporate career as an actuary, a job that she has worked on a full-time basis for the past five years with financial service provider USAA.
"It wasn't until several months down the line that I was feeling that itch that I didn't finish something," Bruce said. "So I picked up the sport again."
Bruce was a quick study. She finished second in her first-ever decathlon at the 2023 USA Women's Decathlon Championships and has had success in heptathlon events as well. Over the last 40 years, the heptathlon has been the chief multi-event for women, with men competing in decathlon at the Olympic level.
Unlike in many European countries, Bruce says, there's not a lot of support for multi-event track and field athletes after college in the United States.
"That was something that I had to battle through in terms of finding a facility that I could train at, and I didn't have a coach for a few years, so I was on my own," she said.
"I'm finally in that steady state now, where I have a facility and I have implements and I have a coach to support me," she said. "But it was a long, several-year transition to make that happen, and I hope that more and more we can get that support, at least in the U.S., that is so often found abroad."
Balancing a full-time job and being a professional athlete takes a lot. She's only able to manage it with the support of her family and employer being understanding and flexible.
"My profession requires exams for credentials as well, so I spend a lot of time studying on top of job hours and training," Bruce said. "Multi (event training) is unique in the sense that you have to be an expert in 10 events, and so the time commitment that takes is very large compared to individual events."
The idea of getting to try even more new things is what initially drew her to becoming a multi-event track and field athlete. She was primarily a hurdler in high school and dabbled in the middle distances but had no prior experience in field events.
"I think the benefit of doing multis is that you know if one thing isn't going right, you have nine other things to go focus on, and I really like knowing that when you get to the decathlon, it's the world's greatest athlete," Bruce said. "I do think that's because of the balance of getting all those different types of power, speed and endurance events. That really fascinated me to jump into it."
She still feels like hurdling is her strongest event but is encouraged by how her shot put has come along, and she's looking forward to showing off her progress in that event this weekend.
"Pole vault is also a strong suit, just because not a lot of girls have spent a lot of time on it, coming from the heptathlon, and I've been in it for a couple years now," Bruce said. "It's definitely a benefit that I have going into the weekend."
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