Stuart Weir loves to do interviews. He spoke with Molly Caudery, the World Indoor Champion in the pole vault in 2024. Molly Caudery won in Doha, but had a small issue in Rabat and withdrew just prior to the competition. We wish Molly a speedy recovery. We thank Stuart Weir for his amazing interviews.
Nine questions for Molly Caudery
RelatedPosts
RunBlogRun #1, Is it still a challenge to get your poles from A to B?
Molly Caudery: Yeah, only in the last year have I had that luxury to be able to have different poles in different parts of the world. I’ve got a set in the UK and a set in America and a spare set in the UK in case anything ever goes wrong. But nothing in China! So for World Indoors, I did have to travel with my poles, which is always difficult. We managed to get confirmation from Air China that I could fly with them to Nanjing via Beijing. So it wasn’t too bad. It was very smooth actually because we know how it works and poles are always difficult to get around the world. I know other people had to take 30 hour flights to make sure that they could get here with three or four different airport stops. So yeah, it’s a huge challenge as a pole vaulter but one that we’re used to. So you just kind of have to adapt to that and be diligent with planning.

RunBlogRun, #2, Talk a little bit about Scott Simpson, what does Scott give you and how does the relationship work?
Molly Caudery: Scott is, in my opinion, the best PV coach in the world. He’s amazing. He takes all the stress off of me when it comes to stuff like travelling with poles and programming for the year. I have such a great relationship with Scott, like I put my full trust in him in a competition. If he says to do something like ‘move up a pole’ or ‘change my grip’ or ‘move my run-up’, there’s no questions asked. I just do it. I think that’s very important. He’s great at listening, so if I say I’m tired in a training session, he’ll adapt the session straight away just like that. We’ve got a really good relationship where he listens to me and I listen to him and it just works great. He’s had so much experience, so technically he knows exactly what I need and what to work on, and that’s been amazing.

RunBlogRun, #3: How can we make field events more exciting?
Molly Caudery: I think bringing new ideas and being a bit innovative is necessary. And I think we kind of saw a little bit of that at the Keely Klassic and people are trying to bring more attention to the sport through the Grand Slam and maybe there could be a field-event kind of competition similar to that. You’ve got the Ultimate Champions next year. So I definitely think people are trying to do something different and that’s what we need and I would like to see more of that.

RunBlogRun, #4: Are you disappointed that there are no field events at the Grand Slam Track?
Molly Caudery: I think it can be seen like that. I’ve not really thought about it too much. We have so much going on anyway. We’ve got so many Diamond Leagues and as pole vaulters, we have so many amazing street meets. They may not have the same exposure and the same kind of money thrown at them, but the pole vault setups are great and they’re set-up for us to jump high. They are normally in small European towns and countries where loads of people locally come and watch and for me that’s so much fun. That’s why I do the sport. So I’m personally not too upset by it. On behalf of most field athletes it would be nice to have equality there but I am happy travelling around doing all these fun pole vault meets.”

RunBlogRun, #5: What could help bring PV to a new audience?
Molly Caudery: I think pole vault is so much fun. If you actually watch it – I know sometimes they only show the top few jumps. But if you really watch the competition and you watch from the start to the end and you see who’s gone in, stayed in and has gone out. It gets really quite technical and becomes like a real show. It’s a spectacle to watch. I’ve been to meets in a train station and people are just on their way to work or wherever they’re going and there’s a pole vault in the middle of their station. And that’s just so amazing to me. And I think if we could do more things like that, it’s such a great way to get us out there and into the world. It’s fun for people to watch as well.

RunBlogRun, #6: Might you try another event like Mondo?
Molly Caudery: I could give it a go but I’m no Mondo. He’s next level. I’m not sure what I could do where I could beat someone else. But I think bringing light into the sport and making it fun and just showing new things is really important.
RunBlogRun, #7: Weren’t you a good hurdler?
Molly Caudery: I think it’s doing it at the right time as well. Obviously this year, Tokyo isn’t until the very end of the year.
So I’m not going to go and do a hurdles race and possibly put myself at risk.
So there is a time and a place. But I think, you know, if it brings people, if it brings viewers to the sport and helps us out, then I think people should kind of be open to doing it.

RunBlogRun, #8: Do you feel like Mondo does, that you’ve got a bit of a responsibility to your event and toward promoting pole vault specifically?
Molly Caudery:Yeah, definitely. I think not just me, myself, but us as pole vaulters. I would love to bring more
recognition to the sport and the way to do that is to jump high, to break records, to win medals. So the more I can do that, the better for myself and for the sport.

RunBlogRun, #9: And going back to the idea of unconventional venues, logistics aside, if you could think of somewhere, maybe in the UK, where you’d love to see a pole vault meet happen, that’s not a traditional venue, would it be?
Molly Caudery: I think a few years ago, there was talk about doing, I know I mentioned the train station earlier, the pole vault meet in Birmingham Grand Central train station, which is a huge station with a lot of space. I think that would be amazing. I think any kind of main square, like main square in London or train station, something like that, where there’s just the general public walking out and about, it’s so amazing. I think that’s kind of the best place that you can do it because the crowds there are great. And like I said, you just get people on their daily commute to work or whatever they’re doing, watching, and that’s just amazing.

Author
Since 2015, Stuart Weir has written for RunBlogRun. He attends about 20 events a year including all most global championships and Diamond Leagues. He enjoys finding the quirky and obscure story.
View all posts