Erica Bougard: 5 facts on the United States heptathlete, Mississippi State alumnus
She is among the most successful individual athlete that has ever gone through Mississippi State. Bougard is a star athlete, advocate and gamer — in more ways than one.
Here is some basic information about Erica Bougard:
Age: 28 years old
Birthday: July 26, 1993
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
High school: Byhalia High School in Byhalia, Mississippi
College: Mississippi State University
Parents: Eric Bougard and Toya Norman
Erica Bougard earned more than 20 honors at Mississippi State
According to Mississippi State athletics, the school has never seen a more-decorated athlete come through Starkville than Erica Bougard. She has 16 career All-American honors, over half of which are first-team caliber recognitions.
She won the 2013 NCAA pentathlon title, was a three-time SEC Field Athlete of the Year and was the first Mississippi State female athlete named to the watch list for The Bowerman (an annual award given to the year's best college track and field athlete in America).
Erica Bougard holds heptathlon school records at Mississippi State
Erica Bougard holds the indoor and outdoor school records in the pentathlon and heptathlon, respectively, at Mississippi State. The heptathlon is primarily held outdoors and the pentathlon is primarily held indoors.
At the 2015 SEC Outdoor Championships, Bougard scored 6,288 points in the heptathlon to set both the meet and MSU school record.
At the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships, Bougard scored 4,586 points in the pentathlon. The meet was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Bougard is also part of the school record-setting 4x400-meter relays. The MSU 4x400 indoor record is 3:38.04, and the outdoor record is 3:32.13.
Erica Bougard is a publicly out LGBTQ athlete
Erica Bougard is publicly out as LGBTQ and is an active advocate for LGBTQ communities.
She gained attention when she sported a rainbow on her shoes while competing at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
She is featured on Nike's website saying, “I’m going to be myself no matter what and let people know... I let the track community know that this is me, this is who I am. This is who I've always been."
Erica Bougard brought home medals in 2018 and 2019
Prior to qualifying for the Olympics, Erica Bougard already made waves for the United States as a track and field athlete.
She won U.S. outdoor national titles in the heptathlon in 2018 and 2019. Bougard won U.S. indoor national titles in the pentathlon in 2017 and 2018 along with long jump in 2017.
At the 2018 Indoor World Championships, she placed fifth in the pentathlon. She scored 4,571 points in Birmingham, England.
In 2019 at the World Outdoor Championships, she finished fourth in the heptathlon. She scored 6,470 points.
Erica Bougard enjoys video games, in addition to Olympic games
In addition to her participation at the 2021 Olympics Games, this athlete is active in another type of games as well — she plays video games like Call of Duty and streams on Twitch.
As of right now, Erica Bougard only has videos uploaded playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Her channel's "About" section does mention her track and field success saying, "oh yeah, I"m a Professional Nike track & field Athlete. 5x US National indoor/outdoor Champion !" She also has a video that starts with the title: I AM AN OLYMPIAN!!