Jess Davis High School

Jess Davis is a Connecticut native who was born on January 31, 1992. She is the first American to earn a modern pentathlon spot at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She began pole vaulting in high school and continued the sport while competing for Central Connecticut State University's track and field team. After graduating, she competed in triathlons before switching to modern pentathlons.

At the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, she secured the third and last Olympic spot open to athletes from North and Central America by finishing fourth. She defeated Phaelen French by a score of 27 points to claim the final Olympic slot.

Davis's entire score came from horseback riding, fencing, swimming, and a combined running and shooting event, totaling 1,370 points. She participated in equestrian eventing as a child, which is akin to an equestrian triathlon where a horse and rider compete in three different events: show jumping, cross-country, and dressage.

What High School did Jess Davis go to?

Jess Davis went to Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Connecticut, in the United States. She graduated in 2010.

As Davis explains it, she was "very bad at anything with a ball" and "couldn't swim," so track seemed like the obvious choice after she enrolled in Nonnewaug High School. Davis quickly became involved with the team. She decided to focus only on track, becoming a pole vault specialist.

However, she had advanced to the level of competition many high school athletes aspired to: Division I university sports by the time she was a senior. Declan Curtin, athletic director at Nonnewaug High School, is proud of Davis' achievements.

Where did Jess Davis go to College?

Jess Davis attended Central Connecticut State University.

The university's records for both indoor and outdoor pole vaulting—2.99 meters established in 2012 and 2.9 meters set in 2011—remain in Davis' hands. She searched for new activities as her time in college was drawing to an end.

She drew a cue from her dad, an Ironman triathlon competitor. She said being able to "hit it out of the park right off the bat" was something she enjoyed doing in three different sports.

Davis was already proficient in three of the five disciplines of contemporary pentathlon: swimming, running, and riding (she learned swimming after high school). She found that it would require practice to shoot a pistol accurately. And mastering fencing would take some time. Davis was competing in Sarasota, Florida, at the UIPM Pentathlon World Cup less than a year after she graduated from college.