Outside of high school track fans and her family, not too many people in this area probably didn’t recognize the name McKenzie Long.
She ran track at Ironton High School before she headed to Pickerington High School Central in Columbus, where she holds the records for the 60m, 100m and 200m dash.
Dominance on the track continued through her collegiate career, first at North Carolina State, and more recently at Ole Miss.
Earlier this year, Long took three titles at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, even as she trained for the Paris Olympics.
A month before the Olympics, readers of The Ironton Tribune let us know that one of our hometown athletes was headed to Paris where she would compete with the best in the world.
Once news of that broke, Long became a source of pride not only for Lawrence County but across the region.
Before her first qualifying race in Paris, local social media went wild for Long and Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky fans poured out words of encouragement for the track star.
In the end, Long placed seventh in the Women’s 200-meter Final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
While under most circumstances seventh place doesn’t get much notice, but social media blew up once again with nothing but praise for Long.
“7th in the WORLD!!!” was a common refrain and rightly so.
We at The Ironton Tribune congratulate Long for letting us share in her Olympic journey and hope to watch her there again in the future.
To that end, The Tribune hopes that Long is honored by proclamations from cities around the Tri-State and perhaps being asked to be the grand marshal of one of the many parades we have in this area so that Long knows that she is respected and loved by her many, many adoring fans here.