US athlete Janay Deloach competes during the women's long jump final at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Atakoy Athletics Arena in Istanbul on March 11, 2012. Deloach won the silver medal. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)
"To be number two in the world," she says with a smile, "feels amazing, it really does."
Number two in the world sounds pretty cool, but that's not exactly what long jumper Janay DeLoach wants. Because number two doesn't get you Olympic gold.
"I want to be number one, that's my goal. I am number two and I don't want to be number two, I want to be number one," she pauses, "To think anything less, I guess I wouldn't be a professional athlete because everyone wants a gold medal."
Jumping for Olympic gold wasn't always the plan for this 26 year old. In fact the self-proclaimed "Big Blob" wanted to quit after her first practice at Colorado State.
"I was very much a big blob," she laughs. "Believe it or not, I came in just oblivious to track and field and what it takes to be a good athlete."
Thankfully it didn't take long for her coach to see the "Blob" really wasn't a blob. Janay's raw talent just needed to hear the right voice.
"Part of a coach is just getting to know your athlete," says CSU Track and Field coach Tim Cawley. "I don't as much coach Janay DeLoach doing the long jump or doing the hurdles, I've gotten to know her well enough to know how to tweak things."
"I don't think I could be where I am if it weren't for CSU and Coach Cawley," adds Janay. "They pretty much molded me from nothing."
In four years at Colorado State, Janay went from "nothing", to breaking school records and earning conference titles. After graduation, she went pro, but stayed with her college coach and support system. A win-win for everyone.
"I struggled to keep the network that I had," explains Janay, who also helps coach the current CSU Track and Field team. "Staying around CSU and being around CSU athletes kind of helped me transition from having a team to being a part of the team in a different way."
"The enjoyable part is not just the Track and Field," says Coach Cawley. "I mean she has three degrees from Colorado State University, [she's] incredibly intelligent and just an honest, genuine person and that makes it enjoyable to be around."
Not to mention: "She's incredibly talented, she makes me look really good and I appreciate that," Cawley says with a grin.
Her coach also appreciates a few other attributes, like Janay's never ending smile
"A lot of coaches ask me all the time, 'Does she smile all the time?' Yeah, pretty much."
Plus her desire to be the best. No matter what kind of day she's having.
"I want a gold medal," she says. "If I want a gold medal it doesn't matter if I don't want to get up that morning or if I don't want to run that day. Because everybody who wants to win a gold medal, will be up in the rain, in the snow no matter what, doing what they can to get to that medal. So yes, that's what drives me."
DeLoach competed in the long jump on Tuesday. She finished second in the first round of the long jump. The finals are on Aug. 8.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)