It’s gold for pole vaulter from Olmsted Falls

Katie Nageotte won an unexpected gold for the United States in the pole vault ahead of the world champion.

Katie Nageotte of Olmsted Falls won an unexpected gold for the United States in the pole vault on Aug. 5 in Tokyo at the Olympics ahead of world champion Anzhelika Sidorova of Russia.

Nageotte failed on her first two attempts of the competition at 4.50 meters but improved from there to clinch her first major medal.

Sidorova took the silver at 4.85. Britain’s Holly Bradshaw won the bronze medal.

Nageotte cleared 4.90 at her third attempt in the medal-clinching round. Sidorova passed on her last chance at 4.90 and moved the bar to 4.95 but didn’t come close to clearing that.

Sidorova’s silver was the first medal in track and field at the Tokyo Games for the Russian team, which is competing under the Russian Olympic Committee name as a result of the country’s long-running doping scandal.

Nageotte, who battled COVID-19 earlier in the year only to return and go viral when she cleared a personal best (4.95) to win the Olympic trials, said she felt tightness in her leg during warmups.

“I know my family got up very early to watch and I would have felt very bad if I’d made them get up at 6 in the morning to watch me no-height,” she said. “So that was definitely going through my head.”

Facing elimination, she cleared the height on the third try and jumped for joy.

Much later, after she cleared 4.9 and Sidorova missed, Nageotte ran into the stands for hugs, and shared congratulations with her competitors on the track.

Then, she taped up the pole, had the bar set at 5.01 and geared up for a chance at a new U.S. record.

She took off down the runway but pulled up short. She could not focus, given what she’d just been through.

“The emotion of winning,” she explained.