Pole vaulter Sandi Morris looks stunned after breaking her pole and injuring her hip at the Tokyo Olympics. | Facebook
Pole vaulter Sandi Morris looks stunned after breaking her pole and injuring her hip at the Tokyo Olympics. | Facebook
It was a painful misstep and a literal bad break for someone who has the eyes of the world on her.
After clinching a silver medal four years ago at the Rio De Janeiro Olympics, Sandi Morris had her sights set on the Tokyo Games and a gold medal.
“My emotions going into that Olympics were very different than now,” she told Greenville Journal. “I was just a kid having fun, and I don’t think it truly sank in how likely I was to medal until I actually did it. This time around, expectations are high. I am on the radar of the media because I am a medalist from Rio, and it can be quite overwhelming.”
On Aug. 2, the opportunity presented itself, but the 29-year-old Morris, who was born in Downers Grove, Ill., had her dreams of glory shattered by injury.
Yahoo Sports reported that Morris attempted a warmup vault before her competition was to resume after a rainstorm delay when she failed to clear the bar. She landed on the edge of the mat near the box where vaulters plant their poles.
When she got up, her pole was bent at a 90-degree angle and Morris herself had sustained a hip injury that hindered her performance and prevented her from completing her final attempt, reducing her to tears.
Morris’s passion for competing was ignited in her at age 7 when her parents noticed how she was eager to race children her age and enrolled her in a track club, Greenville Journal Reported. After a few years running, a coach suggested the pole vault might be more her strength.
From the Greenville track team she was registered in to the University of Arkansas track and field program, Morris transformed herself into a world-class pole vaulter.
The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the current Olympics, enabling Morris and her father more time to work on her staying in shape.
“I think what I want more than anything else is for people who watched me throughout my career to think back and say ‘Dang, that Sandi. She was a tough competitor. No matter the circumstances she would show up and compete,'” she had told Greenville Journal before this year's Olympics began.
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