Jenn Suhr
![]() Jenn Suhr at the 2012 Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Jennifer (Stuczynski) Suhr | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | February 5, 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 141 lb (64 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Track and field athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Pole vault | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Olympic finals | 2008 Beijing, 2012 London | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World finals | 2008 Valencia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National finals | 2005–2010 USA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Highest world ranking | 1st (2011) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal best(s) | outdoor: 4.92 m (16 ft 2 in) (2009, NR) indoor: 5.02 m (16 ft 6 in) (2013, WR) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Updated on June 24, 2012 |
Jennifer "Jenn" Suhr (née Stuczynski) (born February 5, 1982) is an American pole vaulter. She is the current Olympic champion, has been the number-one ranked American pole vaulter since 2006, and has won a total of 11 US National Championships. She holds the world indoor pole vault record. She holds the American women's pole vault record both indoors and outdoors. In 2008 she won the U.S. Olympic trials, setting an American record of 4.92 m (16 ft 2 in) and won a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics. She won the gold medal at the London Olympics 2012 on the 6th of August, 2012.[1] Track & Field News named her American Female Athlete of the Year for 2008.
Biography
Suhr was born to Mark and Sue Stuczynski, grocery store owners in Fredonia, New York. She got involved in sports at a young age, playing softball at age 6. At 9, she competed in an adult golf league with her grandfather. At Fredonia High School, she played softball, basketball, soccer, and track and field, and won the New York State pentathlon title in 2000 as a senior.[2][3]
Suhr attended Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, where she competed in basketball and track and field. She averaged 24.3 points and 6.7 rebounds a game for Roberts Wesleyan in 2003–04, taking her team to the NCCAA national championship game. She graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball with 1,819 points.
On January 3, 2010, Jenn married her coach, Rick Suhr, in Rochester.[4]
Pole vaulting career
2004
Jenn was introduced to pole vault coach Rick Suhr by Adam Steinwachs where the two teamed up to teach her pole vaulting.
2005
In the 2005 USA Indoor Championships in Boston, Suhr entered as an unknown, unseeded competitor and won the US title having only trained for 10 months. She went on to set three personal bests, eventually clearing 4.35 m (14 ft 3 in). Later that indoor season she won the NAIA indoor national title in the pole vault.
2006
Suhr began her career with her coach Rick Suhr providing financial support to her by re-mortgaging his home. Suhr started the 2006 indoor season with personal bests at nearly every meet and becoming the #2 American all time, behind only Stacy Dragila, with her clearance of 4.68 m (15 ft 4 in). She captured her first USA Outdoor title with her winning clearance of 4.55 m (14 ft 11 in) at the 2006 AT&T USA Outdoor Championships. She finished third at the 2006 World Athletics Final.
2007
On May 20, 2007, Suhr broke the American outdoor pole vault record with a clearance of 4.84 m (15 ft 11 in) at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, California, beating the previous record set by Stacy Dragila in 2004 by one centimeter.[5]
Two weeks later, at the Reebok Grand Prix on June 2, 2007, Suhr cleared 4.88 m (16 ft 0 in), breaking the American record for a second time and becoming the second highest vaulter in history behind Russian Yelena Isinbayeva. Suhr then attempted a new world record vault of 5.02 m (16 ft 6 in) - one centimeter higher than Isinbayeva's record at the time - but failed on three attempts at the height.[6]
Suhr took her second national outdoor title at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis with a vault of 4.45 m (14 ft 7 in), her only successful clearance of the competition [7] The victory secured Suhr a place on the US team for the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, held in Osaka, Japan. Competing in her first major global championship, Suhr finished in 10th place in the final, with a 4.50 m (14 ft 9 in) clearance.
2008
Suhr won the Indoor U.S. Nationals, which qualified her for the 2008 IAAF Indoor World Championships in Valencia, Spain, where she finished second on a countback to Yelena Isinbayeva. Both cleared 4.75 m (15 ft 7 in).[8][9]
At the Adidas Track Classic on May 18, 2008 Suhr cleared 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in), breaking her own American record. She missed all three attempts at 5.02 m (16 ft 6 in), which would have been a world record. The U.S. Olympic Committee named her its female athlete of the month for May.[10]
At the U.S. Olympic Trials on July 6, 2008 Suhr cleared 4.92 m (16 ft 2 in), winning the trials and breaking her own American record.[11]
At the Aviva Grand Prix on July 25, 2008 two women attempted the world record in the same meet for the first time. Both Suhr and Isinbayeva were unsuccessful.[12]
At the Olympics in Beijing on August 18, 2008 Suhr finished second to Isinbayeva, clearing 4.80 m (15 ft 9 in). Isinbayeva broke her own world record with a jump of 5.05 m (16 ft 7 in).[13] Suhr finished with the silver medal and credited her coach Rick Suhr for his strict regimen in preparing her for the competitiveness and high stress of the Olympics.
2009
She set a new American record on February 7, 2009 at the Boston Indoor Games when she cleared 15 ft 9.75 in (4.82 m).[14] Suhr won each Visa Championship Meet and broke her own American record with a vault of 15 ft 10 in (4.83 m) at the US Indoor Nationals in Boston on March 1, 2009 giving her a 7th US Title.[15]
On July 1, 2009 she cleared 15 ft 3 in (4.65 m) at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Oregon to win another American title.[16] Suhr was forced to withdraw from the US team for the 2009 world championships in Berlin with an Achilles tendon injury.[17]
2010
On June 27, 2010, Suhr won the USA Outdoor Gill Women's Pole Vault in Des Moines, Iowa with a vault of 4.89 m (16 ft 1 in). It was her fifth consecutive US outdoor title and was the best mark by any woman vaulter in the world for 2010.[18][19]
2011
On February 27, 2011, Suhr won her tenth national title overall with a win at the 2011 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with another national record clearance of 4.86 m (15 ft 11 in) for the indoor event.[20] Her run of five consecutive national outdoor titles was ended by Kylie Hutson at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, with Suhr finishing in second place with a 4.60 m (15 ft 1 in) vault.
Suhr cleared 4.91 m (16 ft 1 in) - the highest vault of the year - in Rochester, New York on July 26. She subsequently finished in fourth place at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea with a leap of 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in).
Suhr also took Diamond League victories in London and Zurich during the season, defeating 2011 world champion Fabiana Murer and three other former world champions in the latter competition.[21]
Track & Field News ranked Suhr the number one women's pole vaulter in the world for 2011.
2012
She opened 2012 with an American record clearance of 4.88 m at the Boston Indoor Grand Prix, re-establishing herself as the second highest female vaulter of all-time.[22] A meet record of 4.65 m followed in the outdoor season at the Drake Relays in April.[23]
On June 24, Suhr won the Olympic Trials (and the United States Championships) to qualify for her second Olympic games.
On August 6, 2012, Jenn Suhr won the gold medal in the women's pole vault at the Olympic Games, defeating Cuba's Yarisley Silva on countback after both competitors had cleared 4.75 m.
2013
On March 1, 2013 Suhr broke Yelena Isinbayeva's world indoor record (set on February 23, 2012 in Stockholm) at the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico with a vault of 5.02m (16 ft. 5.5 in.), becoming the 2nd woman in history to vault over 5 meters.
Sponsorship
In 2006 Suhr signed a 4-year sponsorship with Adidas. In August 2007, Suhr was signed as a brand spokesperson for Nutrilite, a brand of vitamin, mineral and dietary supplements.[24]
Awards and honors
Track & Field News named Suhr the American Female Athlete of the Year for 2008. No male vaulter has ever won the American honor and the only other female winner was Stacy Dragila in 2001.[25]
References
- ^ "Suhr eclipses Isinbayeva to win pole vault gold". Retrieved 07-08-2012.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ Riga's Jenn Stuczynski vaults onto world stage, Democrat and Chronicle, August 3, 2008
- ^ Fredonia High School State Champions
- ^ polevaultpower.com, January 12, 2010
- ^ Post Journal article
- ^ Vaulter Gives Up College but Quickly Learns to Excel, NY Times, June 3, 2007
- ^ USATF. Retrieved on 2012-05-28.
- ^ IAAF World Indoor Championships, Valencia, March 8, 2008
- ^ From Out of Nowhere, a Vaulter Is on Cusp of the Olympics, NY Times, June 29, 2008
- ^ U.S. Olympic Committee honors Stuczynski, Observer, June 26, 2008
- ^ U.S. record falls in women's pole vault, The Oregonian, July 6, 2008
- ^ Stuczynski finishes second at meet in London, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 26, 2008
- ^ 2008 Beijing Olympics on NBC – Women's Pole Vault Finals
- ^ Stuczynski Sets New Pole Vault Record SI.com, February 7, 2009
- ^ "USA Track & Field - View". Usatf.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
- ^ "Rodgers and Stuczynski again take top medalist honors", NAIA, July 1, 2009
- ^ "U.S. record holder Jenn Stuczynski withdraws from pole vault", The Oregonian, August 11, 2009
- ^ Pole Vault 2010. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-03-01.
- ^ "Oliver, Cantwell, Spearmon & Suhr dominate as USA Outdoor Championships conclude", USATF, June 27, 2010, retrieved June 28, 2010
- ^ Lee, Kirby (2011-02-28). National records for Camarena-Williams and Suhr top seven world leads in Albuquerque – USA indoor champs WRAP. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-03-01.
- ^ Suhr triumphs at Weltklasse meet in Zurich. The Buffalo News. Retrieved on 2012-05-21.
- ^ Morse, Parker (2012-02-05). Suhr scales 4.88m national record in Boston. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-02-05.
- ^ Dunaway, Jim (2012-04-29). Spearmon, Lowe and Wilson break meet records at Drake Relays. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
- ^ Team Nutrilite – Sponsored Athletes
- ^ Stuczynski named Female Athlete of Year by 'Track & Field News', Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, January 10, 2009
External links
- 1982 births
- Living people
- Female pole vaulters
- American pole vaulters
- People from Chautauqua County, New York
- Roberts Wesleyan College alumni
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Olympic track and field athletes of the United States
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States
- Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field)
- American sportswomen
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States