No Tie This Time: Katie Moon Vaults To Silver, Nina Kennedy Soars To Gold

SAINT-DENIS, France — Katie Moon and Nina Kennedy will forever be linked together in track and field lore, ever since they mutually agreed to share a pole vault gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

This time around, in the women’s Olympic pole vault at Stade de France, Kennedy got the best of her friendly rival, winning gold with a thrilling leap of 4.90m/16-1. The 27-year-old Aussie athlete attacked the cross bar with the tenacity of a boxing kangaroo. Kennedy was absolutely ecstatic with the successful jump. She didn’t hold any emotions back, pumping her fists and celebrating demonstratively.

Moon was unable to match Kennedy’s top bar, but added Olympic silver to her gold medal from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The 33-year-old pole vaulter from Ohio – who trains in Georgia and is moving to Tulsa – said she was most satisfied with the result considering having overcome a morning illness and other recent setbacks. She has battled injuries this season and physically hasn’t been in top form.

“This medal means everything – this year has been so difficult, to win a medal with my family here, it’s so special, it’s so surreal,” Moon told reporters, while with the American flag draped over her shoulders.

“I woke up not feeling very well, just headache and I felt like my nervous system was a little flat and I said to Brad (her coach, Brad Walker), I’m just going to ignore it – this is the Olympics.

“I just tried to stay very focused on my cues, it was maybe one of the days I didn’t feel my sharpest, but the runway was so fast and I think it helped keep me stay grounded, calm and focused in a way that I haven’t been able to do in a long time,” she said.

Kennedy once again talked about last summer’s stalemate, sharing gold with Moon, and now launching to a solo victory under the bright lights in Paris.

“Sharing with Katie will go down in history as one of my favorite competitions ever, but it really just ignited this self-belief in me that ‘Damn girl, you are good enough to win an outright gold medal,” Kennedy told journalists, with the Australian flag wrapped around her. “Maybe I didn’t think that before Budapest, but now I definitely do.

“I have genuinely thought about this night, every single day, since those Budapest world championships – that night in Budapest felt amazing, but the next thought was that now I have to win Olympics.”

The 27-year-old Kennedy was undoubtedly at the top of her game, with her season best vault, and nearly a clean card, except for one miss at 4.70m/15-3. She kept the pressure on Moon and the others, while leading the competition or at least being tied at the top, wire-to-wire. 

Moon commended her Aussie mate’s performance.

“She was amazing – she did exactly what you need to do to win the Olympics and she’s had the year you need to win the Olympics,” Moon said. “I jumped to win, but she had a phenomenal day and I certainly didn’t have a bad day, but that’s sport.”

After Canadian Alysha Newman went 5.85m/15-11 to vault ahead of Moon, the defending Olympic champion was quick to respond. She matched her fellow North American’s effort and leap frogged back into silver medal position. It was a clutch vault.

“You watch people clear a bar in front of you and I knew if I cleared it, I’d still be ahead of her, so it was an extremely motivating moment,” Moon said, describing the pivotal moment. “I knew I could clear that bar if I cleaned few things up, and I did that.

“I am so proud of the way I jumped today technically – I felt like I’ve been capable of this all year, if my body just held up,” she said.

It was a long and grueling night for a record 19 pole vaulters who qualified for Wednesday night’s final, considering a three-and-a-half hour marathon competition. For Kennedy, Moon and Newman, broken standards delayed the competition for more than 20 minutes. Officials oversaw maintenance personnel making required repairs.

The equipment malfunction occurred prior to Newman’s final attempt at 4.90/16-1, and before Kennedy and Moon raised the bar to 4.95m/16-3. The two-time world champion struggled with the height running through her approach without taking off on one attempt and bailing out on the other.

Moon wasn’t making any excuses, but admitted that the lengthy hiatus in competition took her off her game.

“You expect a championship to run smoothly, but more often than not something like that happens,” Moon said. “The standard broke, they had to fix it, unfortunately I do think it knocked the wind out of all of our sails, a little bit. It’s hard when you’re at that high of a bar, on your biggest poles to take a break like that.

“I think that is part of why I ran through on my second attempt – coming in I felt good, but you have to be super dialed in at that point. I’m proud of myself for giving it a good shot on that third attempt,” Moon said.

Newman claimed bronze, becoming Canada’s first Olympic pole vault medalist – male or female.

Kennedy joins fellow Australian Steve Hooker (Olympic Games Beijing 2008), as only the second Olympic pole vault champion from down under.

Moon is just the second Team USA women's pole vaulter to win multiple Olympic medals, joining Jennifer Suhr, who took silver at Beijing 2008, and gold at the Olympic Games London 2012.