RunBlogRun Senior Writer for Europe, Stuart Weir, wrote this piece with 2021 Olympic champion, 2024 Olympic silver medalist and 2022 and 2023 world champion Katie Moon.Moon is one of our most popular RunBlogRun athletes and continues to lead the US women’s pole vault.
Katie Moon remembers the 2024 Olympic pole vault final
women’s pole vault selection competition The Paris Olympics ended with some controversies. The rules were that the top 12 had to qualify for the finals.11 athletes went under 4:55, another 15 made it under 4:40, but all fell short of 4:55 9 had no failures until 4:55, while 6 had earlier failures.
Officials seemed to have three options. to allow only the 11 who went 4:55 to advance to the finals to have some sort of jump, so that one of the nine who had not had any failures before 4:55, to finish 12th, or, and this is what they chose, let all nine go to the finals. Of course, that meant 20 athletes would jump actually the 19th because one came out.
Successful athletes focus on what’s important and stick with it.I’m not sure St. Francis of Assisi had the women’s pole vault format in mind when he prayed. has a lot to do with the 2024 Olympic Jumping Track. Kate Moon commented. “I didn’t necessarily agree with taking on so many people, but when you know the circumstances, you can mentally prepare for it. And that’s what I did, but it’s not ideal. The pole vault is an incredibly long competition, as it happens to 12 women participation without adding another one. nine. I don’t know what the correct answer was. I think they probably should have taken us eleven instead of asking for 12. Or if they had to have 12, some form of tiebreaker jumps, but I think it was the wrong choice in the end.
It was too long, and I mean we saw the standards break down when it got to a certain point. Unfortunately, it put a damper on what could have been a better pole vault competition. All three of us could have jumped higher. I don’t know if the results would have ended differently in terms of medals, but it prevented it from being a better competition.
In a recent interview, Mondo Duplantis said that for her the championships are much more difficult than, say, the Diamond League, not because of the competition, but because of the long wait between flights. Going back to the finals of the women’s games in Paris, when Katie Moon or one of the other top skaters. cleared the bar the first time, they had to wait while 18 other athletes ran until it was their turn again.Second In a round when the mark was 4:60, eight athletes managed to clear the first time, but then had to wait 37 vaults before finishing that round, and 13 athletes broke 4:70.
But sometimes clouds have a silver lining, and for once the slow competition suited Cathy. “I think waiting has benefited me. I woke up that morning feeling really sick. I didn’t have a lot of energy, so I was able to sit down, regroup, and relax. Luckily, I was still doing well. but knew i had no battery so that helped me in this case but under any other normal circumstances i would have thought. “That’s too much.”
The competition was underway as Katie cleared 4:40, 4:60, 4:70 and 4:80 on her first attempt, and 4:85 on her second attempt, only for Nina Kennedy to win in 4:90 to become the Olympic champion : Katie’s 4:85 was good enough to finish second on the countdown ahead of Alisha Neiman.
On the night of the final, I remember writing to Cathy saying, He replied that he was excited about the silver and had no regrets.Three months after the Olympics, he explained: “I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun at a competition, it’s just what it’s all about. I always say that Tokyo was very special, but Paris was incredible in every way. The crowd and the energy in the stadium was incredible. And then having my family and friends there was just great. Even though my year wasn’t going so well, my training in the last few weeks before Paris was great and I finally felt like I could have a good match. organize That’s all I wanted to do. Medals aside, obviously we want to win a medal. I just wanted to leave that competition feeling like I finally had a meet where I jumped well, and so I did, and I got a medal there with my family. it was perfect. It’s a good day to win a medal or come away with any color of equipment. Everyone appears in the championships, especially at the Olympics, so you have to be, and I’m just grateful I did it.”
