Jenn Suhr withdraws from USA Nat'ls In Protest

One of the best coaches and one of the best athletes in the world. But they're both crazy and obnoxious.

He has the added upgrade of being the creepiest coach in pole vault.

Coach marries athlete...nuff said.

Ssdfssfsdfsdfsdf wrote:

One of the best coaches and one of the best athletes in the world. But they're both crazy and obnoxious.

He has the added upgrade of being the creepiest coach in pole vault.

Alot of US First Responders and US Marines gave up their lives to ensure Jenn Suhr retained the right to choose which meets she will compete in.

rojo wrote:

Shoot the messenger. It amazes me that you are blaming the media.

You're being criticized for drumming up controversy without actually doing any actual research/reporting, ya know, what the media is supposed to do. Did you reach out to Suhr? Did you reach to USATF? Did you do anything but copy and paste a tweet?

Thank you for your services wrote:

Alot of US First Responders and US Marines gave up their lives to ensure Jenn Suhr retained the right to choose which meets she will compete in.

And of course for your ability to incorrectly use the words, a lot.

polevaultpower wrote:

Rick Suhr released a statement on his Facebook this morning:

Media, for real!! How inaccurate can it get? Can anyone just print anything! Jenn posted to improve issues for athletes, she simply asked to be heard...that's all. She stood up for what she believed...and now all the backlash fueled from the most inaccurate media. Even major media. At no point in her post were the words "protest", "progression", "field size", "unicorn" or "UFO" used. THIS HAD NOTHING TO DUE WITH ANY OF THAT! All invented by haters who just love to hate. My advise to media is being accurate gives you credibility, and more importantly keeps you from legal action. Jenn and I will keep our issues here private and they will go to the right people. Always stand up for what you believe! WHAT YOU STAND FOR MEANS MORE THAN WHAT YOU WIN!

I love it. Write a rant that is super vague about what your issue is and what you actually want, then get pissed when people try to fill in the blanks.

You'll keep your issues private? The cat's out of the bag on that one, and by your own choosing.

The Suhrs don't come off with much class or intelligence, do they?

Latest from Jenn. She is right about the 2016 Olympic Trials being unsafe. I believe I was practically apoplectic about it on my Twitter at the time... https://www.facebook.com/jenn.suhr/videos/1456292287761245/

So how does the 2016 issues affect 2017 indoors? See, we are still asking, and speculating, because she won't give the actual reasons for withdrawing.

Still askin' wrote:

So how does the 2016 issues affect 2017 indoors? See, we are still asking, and speculating, because she won't give the actual reasons for withdrawing.

That's because the answer is Sandi Morris.

Be reasonable please wrote:

Still askin' wrote:

So how does the 2016 issues affect 2017 indoors? See, we are still asking, and speculating, because she won't give the actual reasons for withdrawing.

That's because the answer is Sandi Morris.

Boom! Mic drop. Next topic. End of thread.

wait so she goes from saying something or other about fair and level competition to now, in her second statement after backlash, becoming a saint for the safety of future vaulters. I'm a little confused because I really got the impression from her first vague statement that it was about her being able to get another title under the right circumstances. well either way, what did she expect with an initial statement that basically stated nothing at all. maybe she wanted to see the response from that and leave open the room to make up any reason at all for the "protest?"

kara goucher

nick symmonds

alysia montano

lauren fleshman

and now...jenn suhr and rick suhr.

in all of their publicity stunts there is always some suspicion of ulterior motives.

IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE THAT THEY START DOING THESE THINGS AT THE TAIL END OF THEIR CAREERS BEFORE RETIRING....so basically they get to make a living off of the sport while the can and when it's time to leave, they can't do it graciously and "protest" in a dignified and productive manner without trashing the sport that allowed them to pursue and indulge in their passions. yeah ok.... that's real classy and mature. and then they don't know why people speak up about how immature their actions are.

Her name was listed on the scoreboard with a DNS.

not enought time wrote:

Her name was listed on the scoreboard with a DNS.

For Did Not Specify

Maybe instead of deciding last minute to not go to the meet to avoid having to compete with suddenly having competition for the first time in years, she should have dropped out before the declaration period rather than taking a spot from somebody who would have wanted to jump.

It makes a claim that she is doing it because she cares about the sport more believable that way. Instead one of those young up and coming vaulters she claims to be making herself a martyr for didn't get the experience of going to a national meet.

Also, her example from trials isn't a good example. A wet pit is a nuisance, not a hazard. I somehow managed to jump into a wet pit today (our cover is ripped and it rained last night). It was annoying and cold but it didn't kill me.

Becca (polevaultpower), you mentioned a twitter post about the danger of the meet, what did you find dangerous? I didn't think it looked dangerous last year, but I didn't go this year, so don't know what the issues might have been. Perhaps you could enlighten us better than the Suhr's drawn out uninformative rants.

That was a non-issue. The target field size was 16. Only 14 girls entered, 10 with the standard and 4 below it. All 14 were accepted. Jenn scratching earlier would not have added anyone else to the meet.

I would share this gripe had there been rejected entries.

Are you asking me what I thought was dangerous about the Olympic Trials last summer or what was dangerous about USA Indoors this year?

This is just my opinion, Jenn may have a different take on the situation.

As far as the Olympic Trials goes, the pit being totally soaked like that is more than a nuisance. It means every vaulter gets soaked and the poles get soaked if they hit it. More than being a safety issue, it's an example of the needs of TV being put ahead of the needs of the athletes. But that wasn't the biggest issue I personally had.

So the rain storm happened during the WPV qualifying round. There were multiple delays. Several vaulters had been eliminated, but Suhr had not yet entered.

Remember that USATF had just abruptly suspended Women's T&F Chair Sue Humphrey, who would normally be making these decisions, and had many years of experience dealing with these sorts of issues. The decision fell on someone new and less experienced.

The powers that be were befuddled as to what to do, because Jenn had not entered. They couldn't just stop the competition and advance her, so they felt they had to force everyone to keep jumping.

WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE was tell all the girls who cleared the previous bar that they would be advancing to the finals and they should pass the next height. You let Jenn enter the competition at that next height and make, or not make, the final, everyone goes home and gets warm.

Remember that in the vertical jumps, the number of athletes advancing to the final round is not a hard and fast number like it is in the running events. The number of girls remaining in the competition was slightly higher than the target field size, but a very very reasonable number (I don't remember off the top of my head).

This was legitimately a serious safety issue for the girls who had to keep jumping, who were already really cold and wet from their previous jumps. It was a shit show. All of the athletes I spoke to in the mixed zone were unhappy about the situation.

If you are asking about today's meet in ABQ, IMO there were no safety concerns about the meet today. The only possible thing would be concern about the amount of time to wait to enter, but Jenn swears that wasn't her concern, and I personally felt the height progression was reasonable this year.

I was a fan of hers before. Not so much anymore.

80s kid wrote:

I was a fan of hers before. Not so much anymore.

I'm devastated. I'm sure she is too

Obese America wrote:

From what I understood, she requested a large bowl of M&M's to be placed in her warmup area at a certain designated time, with ALL OF THE BROWN M&M's REMOVED. Meet officials didn't have the bowl ready nor did they remove the right M&M's.

USATF, what a joke.

There was valid reasoning behind that much published request, as I'm sure you know.