Kelly McKee is on a viral quest to dunk a basketball. The greatest triple jumper in University of Virginia history might need to change her approach to do so. Might is the key word here.
She has previously jumped off of one single foot for years. Is it time to takeoff from two feet?
McKee was a two-time All-American for the Cavaliers in the late 2010s. She recorded the program’s best triple jump finish at the NCAA Championships in 2019 and also competed for the United States at the Pan American Games while still in school. Her ultimate goal is to make the Olympics.
Her first attempt to make Team USA last summer came up short so the focus now shifts to Los Angeles in 2028! The grind never stops.
In the meantime, McKee has embarked on a very specific journey to dunk a basketball. A regulation hoop is 10 feet tall so the Kansas-native needs to record a vertical jump of approximately three feet if she is going to jam one home. It’s not a perfect science when it comes to these kinds of feats but that is more or less the math involved here. She has to fly!
That might seem impossible, but it has happened before. Spud Webb famously dunked at 5-foot-6. Nate Robinson won the NBA Dunk Contest at 5-foot-9.
McKee wants to be the first (known) female of her height to dunk and she is not that far off!
As a triple jumper by day, it is ingrained her DNA to jump off of one foot. However, the comment section on her videos is always flooded with people begging her to take off from two feet. So she did!
Kelly McKee is still playing around with her approach. It can’t hurt to try new things.
But as you can see, the one-footed takeoff comes more naturally to someone who jumped off of one foot for most of the last decade+. Would it be beneficial to make the switch to two feet? As a dunker, maybe. As a triple jumper, no. We shall see what McKee decides to use moving forward but the results speak for themselves so far. She can really get up off of one foot!