Katie Nageotte Leading The Way By Grant Overstake
Who will become the next Olympic women’s pole vault champion?
then, Katie felt the Olympic flame burning in her heart.
With her vault of 4.94 (16-2.5) on June 11th, Katie Nageotte currently holds the world lead.
“Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted that [Olympic glory],” she recalled. “As I got older and was good at sports, it was like, ‘Oh, okay, this is something that maybe... maybe could happen for me.’’’ “Maybe” was enough to keep the flame burning.
One can already imagine Katie on the podium, waving and smiling to a worldwide audience on television and thousands of her social media followers online, with a smile that has become a trademark tweet for one of the sport’s most popular vaulters. But before Katie finds Olympic glory in the Land of the Rising Sun, she must do one thing she’s never done before, which is make the U.S. Olympic Team. Since a heartbreaking 5th place finish at the Trials in 2016, she has been on a burning quest to redeem herself.
Photo credit: Adam Barcan
T A K E O F F
M A G A Z I N E
In an Olympic season like none other, when Tokyo 2020 became Tokyo 2021, “up and down” doesn’t begin to describe the roller coaster ride she’s been on. The movie of Katie’s Olympic quest begins in the family room in Olmsted Falls, Ohio late in the last century. Zoom in as a spirited girl with long arms and spindly legs fidgets with excitement watching the Olympic Games unfold on television with her father Mark, mom Diane, and her two siblings Andy and Emily. Even
Flash forward to a montage of images of Katie growing up as a budding gymnast, and then as a pole vaulter, with her father driving her back and forth an hour each way to practice. Then, in a heartbeat, there’s an empty chair in front of the TV as the family of five becomes only four. No one can prepare for the loss of their dad from a heart attack when she is only 16 years old. Somehow, Mom keeps it together, keeps working. Katie says she was an angel in a family fraught with angst and woe. After her father’s passing, Katie writes “Dad” on her track shoe for the first time, as she will before every competition from then on. A closeup of her foot on the runway shows that “Dad” is still a driving force, written on her Nike shoes. In college, Katie became the twotime NCAA Division II pole vault champion and a three-time
