Allen Simms
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 Simms in Stavanger 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 26 July 1982 Washington DC, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Southern California | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Track and field | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Allen Simms (born July 26, 1982) is an American triple jumper and Social Entrepreneur.
Simms is the founder of Impano Academy Rwanda, a non-profit amateur sports organization established in 2016 based in Kigali, Rwanda designed to promote the sport of track and field by offering professional sports coaching, guidance, and education to Rwandan potential athletes in underdeveloped communities. The organization travels around the country carefully testing prospective student-athletes in collaboration with local clubs, teams, and the national federation. They train local coaches to identify talent, select the best sporting youth, and develop them into future champions. They offer sports camps and clinics for all athletes to learn from the best coaches and encourage participation in sports.[1]
At the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, Simms finished in sixth place overall, just four inches short of making the USA Olympic team. He finished the season ranked fifth nationally. In 2010 he finished 3rd at the USA Indoor Championships in the triple jump.
He competed for Puerto Rico in 2007 after changing allegiance from the United States in May 2005,[2] but changed back in 2008.[3] In 2007, he was national champion in the triple jump and ranked 15th in the world. That year, with a best jump of 56 ft. 2 inches, he qualified for the World Championships and the Olympics with an "A" standard. Simms met the "A" standard in 2004 also, and he participated in the 2003 and 2005 World Outdoor Championships and the 2004 and 2006 World Indoor Championships. In 2004, he was the USA Indoor Champion in the triple jump. He finished fourth at the 2003 Pan American Games and eighth in long jump at the 2007 Pan American Games.[4]
As a collegian, he was the NCAA runner-up at the Outdoor championships in 2005 in the triple jump and the individual champion at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2003. Over the course of his collegiate career, he was a seven-time All-American in the long and triple jumps, and in 2003 he was the PAC-10 record holder in the triple jump, PAC-10 Newcomer of the Year, the NCAA West Region Field Event Athlete of the Year and set the University of Southern California's school record in the triple jump.[5]
His personal best jump is 17.17 metres, achieved in April 2003 in Los Angeles. He has 17.26 metres on the indoor track, achieved in March 2003 in Fayetteville. In the long jump he has 8.02 metres.
He graduated from USC in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in multimedia technology and earned a Master of Art in liberal studies and a graduate certificate in global studies from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2014.[6]
