Jenn Stuczynski

Jenn Stuczynski could be described as late bloomer in pole vaulting, only beginning to vault at the tail end of her collegiate career. But for Stuczynski, it was her own athletic ability that distracted her from what has become her full time career.

Stuczynski was a competitive softball player in her youth, and in high school she won the New York state championship title in the Pentathlon. Later, Stuczynski graduated from Roberts Wesleyan College as the university’s all-time scoring leader in basketball.

And while it took Stuczynski some time to pick up pole vaulting, her potential as a world class vaulter were obvious almost immediately. Within the span of two weeks in the winter of 2005, Stuczynski won both her first collegiate pole vault title at the NAIA Indoor Championships, and her first US national title at the USATF Championships in Boston. She also added runner-up finishes at both the 55m hurdles at the NAIA Indoor Championships, as well as in the javelin throw at the NAIA Outdoor Championships that spring.

The next year, Stuczynski’s first as a professional, was meteoric. She won all but three of her domestic contests, including her first outdoor national title. She also recorded top three finishes at major European meets in London and Stockholm.

As evidence that she was still very much a star on the rise, Stuczynski went nearly undefeated in her domestic campaign, losing only once to world record holder and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbaeva. Stuczysnki also broke the American record on two occasions: the first in Carson, CA with a vault of 4.84m (15’10.5”) which broke 2000 Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila’s eleven-year hold on the American record. The second was in New York, where her winning vault of 4.88m not only reset her own two-week old American record, but it also made her the first American woman to vault over 16 feet and it made her tied as the second highest vaulter in history.

Though she seemed to be an easy favorite for a medal at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka in August of 2007, an ankle injury suffered at the London Grand Prix the month before forced Stuczynski to withdraw from pole vault final in Osaka and end her season early.

Eager to make up for her disappointing end to an otherwise stellar season in 2007, Stuczynski started her 2008 season off with a world-leading jump of 4.71m. The next month at the USATF Indoor Championships in Boston, Stuczynski recaptured her national pole vault title, which qualified her to compete at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain. In Valencia, Stuczynski was nearly flawless in capturing the silver medal, with only a single miss separating her from golde medalsit and world record holder Isinbaeva. It was Stuczynski’s first international medal of any color, and it would seem to not be her last as she prepares to duplicate her indoor success this summer in Beijing.