Tongula Givens

Tongula Givens last competed in track & field as a Missouri Southern State University student-athlete in 1995, yet her name continues to dominate the school’s history of track & field. Givens still holds each of the top 10 outdoor marks in both the triple jump and the long jump. Indoors, Givens has each of the top six marks ever in the long jump and five of the top 10 in the triple jump, including the top four. She is the only female in school history to surpass 40 feet in the triple jump and 20 feet in the long jump.

Givens was an eight-time All-America at MSSU, including national championships in the triple jump in 1994 (outdoor) and 1995 (indoor). She collected three MIAA high-point individual awards during her Southern career and, on top of holding each Southern female record in the triple jump and long jump, still maintains the conference’s outdoor triple jump record (40 feet, 11 inches).

In 1993, Givens was named MSSU’s Female Athlete of the Year and claimed the honor again in 1995, the same year she also won the E.O. & Virginia Humphrey Award, given to the institution’s outstanding student-athlete of the year.

Currently of Charleston, S.C., Givens continues to compete in the long jump, triple jump and pole vault. In the 2003 indoor season, she had the third-best U.S. women's triple jump mark and the eighth-best long jump. Givens trained at MSSU in 2000 and went on to qualify and compete in the 2000 Olympic Trials. She also qualified for the 2004 Olympic Trials.