PJ Austin

As a prep for Maricopa High School, Austin competed in basketball, gridiron football, and track and field. He won the CIF California State Meet in the 4 × 100 metres, and set a school record in the long jump.^[3]

In fall 2018, he joined the Arizona Wildcats track and field team not as a sprinter, but as a jumper. He had a successful freshman season, jumping what was at one point the farthest jump of 2019 by any collegiate freshman.^[5] At the 2019 Pan American U20 Athletics Championships, Austin won the silver medal in the long jump behind Wayne Pinnock. It was a close competition, as both athletes were measured at 7.82 m but Pinnock had the better next-best jump on countback.^[6][7]

In 2020, Austin transferred to the Florida Gators track and field program, which he would compete at through 2023.^[8][9] He qualified for his first collegiate nationals at the 2021 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, finishing 13th overall in the long jump.^[10]

With a runner-up finish in the 4 × 100 m at the 2022 NCAA Championships, Austin began to specialize in sprinting in 2023.^[1] He finished 3rd in the 60 metres at the 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, better than his 7th-place finish in the long jump.^[11]

Austin's biggest breakthrough came in the spring of 2023, at the 2023 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In the East Preliminary Round two weeks prior, he had run 9.88 seconds for 100 m, but with a 5.5 metres/second tailwind that greatly aided the result and made it ineligible for records.^[12] At the championships in the first semi-final, Austin nearly repeated this performance with a 9.89 clocking, this time with a legal +1.3 m/s wind. Although he could not repeat this in the finals and only finished 5th, the mark was nonetheless a personal best by 0.2 seconds.^[13][14] Austin competed in the 100 m at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and won his first-round heat, but he did not advance past the semi-finals.^[15]

Austin is from Los Angeles, California where he attended Maricopa High School. He didn't want to compete in track initially, but he was convinced by his football coaches to try it his freshman year. On his first ever attempt at the long jump, he jumped over 20 feet (6.1 m).^[5]