Running can take you far, but long jump can take you even further. At least that’s the case for long jump National Champion Ida Breigan. Breigan is originally from Fredrikstad, Norway, 5,000 miles away from San Antonio. She is currently in her sophomore year at UTSA, majoring in cybersecurity.
Breigan began running track at just 10 years old. Coming from a family full of track athletes, her parents encouraged her to try the sport — amongst several others — until Breigan found what she truly excelled in.
“I did a lot of other sports before I went into track,” Breigan said. “They wanted to wait a little bit, and then we have fun. So, I did a little bit of gymnastics and horse riding and some other stuff that I still really like. I was first a sprinter, and I did a lot of hurdles, sprinting, just everything and then it got more and more serious with sprinting. I just did long jump for fun in competitions, and suddenly it went better than the sprinting, so it was fun to do.
“It was a competition, I think, two years ago,” Breigan said. “And I just signed up in a competition, like I usually did for fun, cause I wasn’t too bad at it. I had a couple of long jump practices that fall, so I felt a little bit more confident going into it. I was also gonna do the sprints, but the long jump went very well, so I ended up not doing the sprints, and I won my first national title, which really motivated me to only do long jump.”
Prior to UTSA, Breigan competed in the 2023 U20 Tyrvinglekene Meet, where she jumped 6.21 meters to win. She then became the 2023 Norwegian Indoor Champion in long jump with a 6.29 meter bound. After several discussions with UTSA’s coaches and other Norwegian track athletes at UTSA, Breigan decided that becoming a Roadrunner was a jump in the right direction.
In her freshman year at UTSA, Breigan competed in her first NCAA Championship, securing sixth place in long jump earning Indoor First Team All-American Honors, the first true freshman woman to do so at UTSA.
“I was pretty surprised and of course, very, very happy,” Breigan said. “That’s one of those moments you look up to as a kid. That’s always been one of my big goals, so that was very exciting. I was very nervous, and yeah, I still think about that.”
Though Breigan has found immense success on the track, adjusting to American culture off of the track proved to be trickier than she expected.
“When people ask you here, ‘Oh, hey, how’s it going?’ but that is just like, ‘Oh, I’m good, how are you?’ and then you walk past each other. I messed up on this a couple of times when I got here,” Breigan said of learning casual American greetings. “In the beginning, I said everything, like if people ask you that back home, they actually wanna have a conversation. But I’ve heard we’re pretty introverted in Norway, so when people actually ask you that, they are down to talk, but if they ask you that here that’s normal, you just pass each other. It took me some time before I realized. So I was like, ‘Oh, okay, bye,’ so it is difficult to deal with, but now it’s like, you get used to it.”
When it comes to the world outside of track, Breigan loves to play the piano, draw and paint. Breigan values athletics and academics equally. She is currently a cybersecurity major focusing on her studies when she’s not working towards her goal of going pro.
“I think it’s very important to get a good education,” Breigan said. “Which is also why I chose this program because it’s like the number one in the country. I think it’s a very good thing for me as an athlete, because I wanna go pro when I’m done here, and then you can work from different locations and stuff, there’s a lot of options of what you can do with it. I think it’s a big part of the future, and it just felt like the right decision.”
As the outdoor season approaches, Breigan continues to improve. The Roadrunners will compete in their next meet at the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station, Texas, on Feb. 7-8.
“I love when there are fans watching. I just remember from conference that we had at home track last year, it was amazing and the atmosphere, everyone was cheering and you just give that little extra [in competition]. That part gets into my memory,” Breigan said. “It’s like, when it’s at home and people show up, it’s very important. We don’t have [a] conference here this year, but to get students to come and cheer us on that, that would be amazing. I think it’s our first outdoor track meet, and everyone’s a little bit nervous starting the outdoor season. So to get that extra support from fans and students, that would help a lot.”
The first official UTSA Invitational will take place from Mar. 21-22 at Park West Athletics Complex.
