Grasping The Games

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State has never seen a more-decorated athlete wear the Maroon and White than Erica Bougard. The Byhalia, Mississippi, native holds a nearly untouchable record with 16 career All-American honors. More than half of those are first-team awards.

On top of that she holds five school records, won the 2013 NCAA pentathlon title, was a three-time SEC Field Athlete of the Year and was the first Bulldog woman ever named to the watch list for The Bowerman.

But one thing has always eluded her. One final line to add to her resume – Olympian. She can add it now after being named to Team USA for the Tokyo Games this summer as a heptathlete.

From an early age, her father knew it was possible, but Bougard somewhat brushed off the suggestion.

"Maybe it could, maybe it couldn't. I'm just a kid. I just want to go out and play," she remembered as she looked back on the path that's led her here.

Mississippi State was where she realized the Games could be more than a dream and were a very real possibility. Offered a full scholarship out of high school, she felt like she couldn't turn down a chance to compete for the Bulldogs.

"I felt like it was given to me, and I had to accept that and try to do something with my career other than stay in a small town the rest of my life," she said. "I wanted to be something bigger than what I was."

Her cousin had introduced her to the heptathlon at her summer track club, and Bougard found immediate success in the event. When she arrived in Starkville, assistant coach Steve Thomas began to pick apart the finer points of each event with her, none more so than the high jump.

"He would study high jump from top to bottom," Bougard said. "He knew the way my feet needed to be planted when I'm running. He knew when I didn't have a good run. He knew if I had an extra hop in my run that I wasn't going to make the next bar. He knew everything about high jump, and he kind of perfected me on it."

It was one of the biggest impacts Thomas had on her career. Bougard has proven time and again that she's an exceptional all-around athlete. The 2013 national title and a Cliff Harper Trophy, given to the top points-scorer at the SEC Championships, in 2015 speak to that. But it wasn't until her senior year that she earned All-American recognition in the high jump. She set a school record and placed fifth at the national championships that year.

But more than technical improvements, Thomas challenged Bougard to be more than she thought she could.

"He was a pusher," Bougard said. "He's part of the reason I'm where I am today because I really didn't want to pursue a professional career. I didn't know if I could do it or not, but he sat me down and talked to me. He was like, 'I really feel and believe that you can do this at the next level.'"

After graduating, she followed his advice, moved to California and began training year-round with nothing on her mind but track and field. Two years later, she signed her first professional contract. She's since won the U.S. Championships crown in both the heptathlon and the pentathlon twice and made two World Championships appearances representing her country.

It's been a steady climb for one of the Bulldogs' best. She placed fifth in the pentathlon at the 2018 Indoor World Championships. She followed that performance the next year with a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon at the 2019 Outdoor World Championships, an event no American has medaled in since 2008.

"Being fourth place is literally the worst place you could get to me. I didn't feel mad or devastated. It was the highest a U.S. athlete had placed in almost 10 years, but I know now that I have a really fair chance of being top three in the world."

So she trained on with her eyes set on Tokyo.

"I've worked for this for four, now five, years because of COVID," she said. "I didn't make the 2016 team, and that was really heartbreaking. I vowed to myself to make every team after that, and I've been on the right path so far."

She hopes her journey ends on top of a podium in early August with an Olympic medal around her neck, the first for an American in the heptathlon in more than a decade.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Erica Bougard

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