Ranking the Records Countdown - #2

Girls #2
KYM CARTER, Wichita East, High Jump 6'2.25" (1982)
IAAF Score: 1,111 points



It's really hard to know where to start with Kym Carter, so let's start with the fact that her 6'2.25" state record high jump was also the U.S. high school national record at the time it was set.

But the high jump wasn't even Kym Carter's best event.  Her best event was, well, all the events together. 

She was a multi-eventer, a heptathlete outdoors and a pentathlete indoors.  And she was one of the best in the world for nearly a decade.

She would twice world-rank in the top-10 in the heptathlon and would rank in the U.S. top-10 eight times.

She made the 1992 U.S. Olympic team in the heptathlon, finishing 11th. 

She made seven U.S. World Championships teams in the heptathlon outdoors or the pentathlon indoors - 1987, 1991, 1993 Indoor, 1993, 1995 Indoor, 1997 Indoor, and 1997.

She won two World Championships medals - silver in the pentathlon at the 1995 World Indoor Championships, and bronze in the same event at the 1997 World Indoor Championships.

In order to wrap your head around the kind of superb all-around athlete that Kym Carter was, check out what her other event PRs were when she finally retired from the sport after a long world-class professional career:

200m   23.95
800m   2:08.62
100H    13.57
Long Jump   20'1.5"
Triple Jump   34'5"w
Shot Put  50'8.25"
Javelin Throw   123'7"
Heptathlon   6357
Heptathlon   6371w

And just for good measure, she once ran a 9:53.60 3,000m, the equivalent of a 10:40 2-mile.

Kym Carter in the shot put during the heptathlon at the 1995 World Championships

After high school, Carter went to Louisiana State University.  At LSU, she was a three-time NCAA All-American, with two of those coming in the same meet.  At the 1987 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Carter was an All-American in both the heptathlon and the high jump (as if the seven events for the heptathlon weren't enough).

Kym Carter in the long jump during the heptathlon at the 1993 World Championships

Carter is the executive director of the Carl Lewis Foundation and a board member of Sound Body Sound Mind, a high school physical fitness program. She is the mother of twins.