by Stuart WeirAikaterina Stefanidi
I was delighted to see that Aikaterina Stefanidi Will compete on the indoor circuit this year after missing the 2025 season. As well as being one of the greatest ever pole vaulters – world champion in London 2017 and Olympic champion 2016 for example – I have always found her one of the most engaging athletes to talk to. Ask her a question, and you get a straight answer. To celebrate the fact that she is competing at the Millrose, I have pulled out some questions and answers from my archives.
How did it all start?
Growing up in Greece I started pole vaulting at 10 years old, earlier than most girls. It was in 2000 when there was the first Olympic women’s pole vault. For the next five years I broke the world age group record – I think I still hold some of those. When I was 16 I broke the world U18 record, 4.37.
The dynamics of being coached by your husband, Mitch?
When we started, we said “when we get in the car to go to practice, we are coach and athlete. When we get back in the car afterwards we are husband and wife again”. I think we’ve done quite a good job of following that. Since 2015 our lives have changed drastically with becoming part of the pole vault community and travelling. That means that is almost impossible for us not to talk about pole vaulting at home. But I think we definitely do it in a way which is different from coach/athlete. Once in a while we will argue about something – but nothing big really.
How is the balance of physical, technical and behavioral abilities in being successful?
The consistency of my run – and I think that is both physical and technical – is what makes me so consistent in my jumping in championships. To have this trust in my run-up – and it is not just blind trust because it really is there. Every time I run and put down the pole I’m usually within an inch and that gives me confidence for the takeoff. Not so much the speed of my run but the way that I run. Growing up I was always quite fast – I know now that I’m not the fastest. So speed is there but for me right now I don’t think that the speed of the run is as important as the technique of the run. I think speed and explosiveness would be my top two.
Life balance?
When I was in college it helped me very much that I had that other aspect of my life – studies. At times I was tired of the academic side and couldn’t wait to get out to practice. But after colllege [and I was full time] I didn’t have anything else – not quite true as we were renovating our house. But I think it was important at that time for me to focus more on pole vaulting and commit to it. I think also it depends on how the year is going. Sometimes you might need a distraction and sometimes you might not. I feel that I am pretty good at finding the balance. When I need to focus more on pole vaulting I can do it but when I need a distraction, I can do that.
Is it true that you don’t train much on your full, 16 step approach?
Yes, indoors we never go back to my full run up. Outdoors we have done some training from the full run up but only a couple of weeks before a big meet or championship. That is partly because I take a lot of jumps. I run less than most pole vaulters but I’d take more jumps. I would much rather do that, and have the feeling of the pole and all the different positions where you can hit it a little different but still finish it and make it – for me, that’s a lot more important. The track and running has been there since I was a little kid and I feel that I don’t need to be working with long runs to get that consistency. If I can be consistent with 6 or 12 steps then going back to 16 just feels like adding a flying start.
How to do approach championships?
I think there may be a genetic or biological component to it. Nerves and anxiety make us release certain hormones but people react to that differently. It’s not that one person is more nervous than another but that there is something chemically different happening in our brains. I think up to a point you can control it and work on it. When I was 15 I won the World Youth Championship and I didn’t go there as the favorite so I have competed from a very young age and I think that there is something that has always been there. But I think we have also worked on it to help me physically and mentally – and perhaps “mentally” is the most important for the pole vault. I’ve been going into championships every year and every year has been a little different and almost every year I’ve been able to get a season’s best in the championship.
How long can you keep completing?
it seems that every year there’s more rehab that needs to happen. If you think about starting with 100 coins in practice it seems that every year one more goes from practice into rehab. You don’t have as much energy. You can’t expect to do the same amount of practice and stay as healthy as you get older. But of course you can have one bad year health-wise and then come back stronger or even experience that the rehab you did last year is working for you this year. Perhaps I will continue doing it to 38 like Jenn Suhr or even into my forties! Even when I retire, I won’t retire I will just stop getting paid for it.
For someone who is jumping 4:50 how do they get to 4:80?
What I feel is missing among some of the younger girls is the respect for the sport – specifically respect for the professional part of the sport. I remember at the London 2017 when the bronze medal height was 4.65 – not a great height but it was a World Championship and afterwards I heard people saying “if I had been there and I could’ve won a medal at the World Championship”. Professional sport doesn’t work that way and I think there is massive lack of respect for what we do. We are out there jumping 20 or 30 times a year. And I think more and more this is happening because more girls are jumping higher, younger. They’re breaking age group records; they are breaking high school records. Because of that I think there is a bigger lack of respect being created. There is a massive difference in level from 4.30, 4.40 that you’re jumping when you’re one of the best as a junior to 4.70. But even for the girl jumping 4.50 to get to 4.60. That is a different level and to do it under the conditions that we have to do it most of the year. I think people don’t realize that.
Dealing with nerves of major championships
I think one of the reasons I do well in championships is because I don’t think about anything. It’s not that I don’t get nervous, I do get nervous but I allow my brain to shut down and let my body do what it has learned to do in practice. More than anything I am trying to turn my brain off, rather than trying to focus on anything.
I think in general, I do well under pressure – in many different things. That isn’t always the case as some people do well under pressure in certain situations and not others. I was always a good test-taker so I think there is a biological component. But also because I’ve been pole vaulting since I was 10 I have taken so many jumps and so many different jumps that I am able to come out of a bad run or a bad takeoff with a good jump. Take my 4.82 in London 2017, I almost stopped it but then made it. And if I hadn’t made 4.91, I would still have one with that 4.82 jump. That’s the kind of approach Mondo has “just move your hands and get over the bar”.
You learn so much more from your bad days. That is when you become a better pole vaulter.
If you are on your third attempt at a bar which will not win you a medal but will get you three attempts at the medal height – do you take it or pass?
I was going to say pass but then it depends on the point in the competition. I’m thinking of a situation where I am fourth. Who wants to be jumping for fourth? I would prefer the pressure of jumping for a medal.
