by Stuart Weir
Stuart Weir, the senior writer for Europe for RunBlogRun, wrote this piece with Katie Moon, the 2021 Olympic champion, the 2024 Olympic silver medalist, and the 2022 and 2023 World Champion. Moon is one of our most popular RunBlogRun athletes and continues to lead American women’s pole vaulting.
Katie Moon recalls the 2024 Olympic pole vault final
The qualifying competition for the women’s pole vault at the Paris Olympics ended in some controversy. The rules were that the top 12 would qualify for the final. 11 athletes cleared at 4:55, and a further 15 were successful at 4:40, but all had three failures at 4:55. Nine of the 15 had no failures before 4:55, while 6 had had an earlier failure.
The officials seemed to have three options: allow just the 11 who had cleared 4:55 to progress to the final, have some kind of jump-off to enable one of the nine who had had no failures before 4:55 to take 12th place, or—and this was what they opted for—allow all nine to progress to the final. Of course, that meant there would be 20 athletes jumping in the final—actually 19, as one withdrew.
Successful athletes concentrate on what matters and get on with it. I’m not sure St Francis of Assisi had the format of the women’s pole vault in mind when he prayed, “Lord help me to change what I can change, to accept what I cannot change and to know the difference” but his words were very relevant to the 2024 Olympic pole vault. Kate Moon commented, “I didn’t necessarily agree with taking that many people, but once you know the circumstances, you can mentally prepare for it. And that’s just what I did, but it is not ideal. The pole vault is an incredibly long competition – as it is with 12 women, without adding another nine. I don’t know what the correct answer was. I think it probably was to take eleven of us instead of requiring 12. Or if they have to have 12, then some form of a tiebreaker jumps off, but I think it was ultimately the wrong choice.
It was way too long, and I mean, we saw the standards break once it reached a certain point. Unfortunately, it hindered what could have been an even better pole vault competition. All three of us could have jumped higher. I don’t know that the results would have finished out any differently regarding medal placement, but it hindered what could have been an even better competition. “
In a recent interview, Mondo Duplantis said that he found championship competitions much more challenging than, say, a Diamond League – not because of the competition but because of the long waiting time between jumps. Going back to the Paris women’s Olympic final, when Katie Moon or one of the other top vaulters cleared the bar the first time, they had to wait while 18 other athletes vaulted before it was their turn again. In the second round, with the bar at 4:60, eight athletes managed first-time clearances but then had to wait for 37 vaults before completing that round, and 13 athletes moved on to 4:70.
But sometimes, clouds have a silver lining, and for once, the slow competition suited Katie. She explains: “I think the waiting worked to my advantage. I woke up that morning feeling very sick, so I was really worried. I did not have a big energy tank, so I focused on making every jump count. Then, the ability to sit down, regroup, and relax helped. Thankfully, my body felt sharp, and I was still executing well, but I knew I did not have a battery. So it did help me in this instance, but in any other normal circumstance, I would have thought, ‘That’s way too many’”.
The competition progressed with Katie clearing 4:40, 4:60, 4:70, and 4:80 on her first attempt and then 4:85 on the second attempt. Only Nina Kennedy cleared 4:90 and was the Olympic Champion. Katie’s 4:85 was enough to finish second ahead of Alysha Neuman on countback.
On the evening of the final, I remember texting Katie to say, “Well done or Bad luck.” She replied that she was thrilled with silver and had no regrets. Three months after the Olympics, she explained: “I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun at a competition before, just everything about it. I always say that Tokyo was very special, but Paris was incredible in every way; the stadium’s crowd and energy were unbelievable. And then having my family and friends there was just awesome. Even though my year had not been going well, my practices in the last couple weeks before Paris had been excellent, and I finally felt like I could put together a good meet; that was all I wanted to do. Medals aside, obviously, we want to win a medal. I just wanted to leave that competition feeling like I had finally had a meeting where I jumped well. And so I did that and claimed a medal with my family there; it was perfect. Earning a medal or walking away from any championship with any color of hardware is a good day because anything can happen. Everybody shows up at championships, especially the Olympics, so you must be on – to get any color medal. And I’m just grateful that I did”.
