She wasn't unusually muscular for a female vaulter, we have plenty of buff women who have done well. And honestly I didn't notice the change in size because I never paid much attention to her before the baby, I was just vaguely aware that Bill Payne had a daughter who pole vaulted and was pretty good but not amazing.
In hindsight, she is noticeably more muscular, which I would expect for like a high school boy who hasn't lifted much going off to college, but is less normal for women... especially given that she had put in two solid years at Kansas which has a very good pole vault history, and I'm SURE she would have had a solid lifting program there.
That's part of what made all of this suspicious. I'm not an expert on her HS experience, but she trained at least some with a club there, and jumped over 13 feet, which is quite good for a HS girl. And like I said, Kansas is a good program with a good pole vault coach.
Like yes, different things work for different people. She probably really was more focused after the baby. Steroids help you train harder and I'm sure she was. I'm sure she worked her ass off.
But if she was a 16' talent clean, even if things were less than ideal for her at Kansas, she should have easily been in the high 14's there, given that they have a good coach and good poles available. Yet she was only in the high 13's there.
I don't buy the story that having a baby is this big performance enhancing boost.
I've had two kids. Maybe if everything goes perfectly, if you have a smooth delivery, if either your baby sleeps well or you have someone else help with baby at night, if you have enough childcare to be able to train uninterrupted... maybe then there is a small performance enhancing benefit to be had. But in the real world, the average woman doesn't get a significant performance advantage from popping out a baby, it's usually the opposite.
It's all very sad. The rivalry in college between her and Sandi was great. USATF indoors with her and Sandi and Jenn was amaaaazzzzzing. And that's where she tested positive :(
But at least it did come out. USADA only caught her because she and her team didn't know how to pass today's drugs tests. USADA got lucky here. This wasn't intel-based, this was a gift that fell on their laps.