Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

“Blurred nightmare": USA’s Suhr posts heartwrenching letter to fans

Athletics - Olympics: Day 14

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 19: Jennifer Suhr of the United States competes in the Women’s Pole Vault Final on Day 14 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 19, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Jenn Suhr’s goals went from defending her gold medal to just getting out of bed to compete in Rio.

The 2012 Olympic champion in the women’s pole vault, Suhr became “sicker than I have ever been” once she arrived in Brazil in what she’s calling “a blurred nightmare”.

Suhr finished tied for 7th in Rio after clearing 4.6m, which is still impressive considering 4.75 won her gold in London, though she had aims of hitting 4.9.

Gold winner Ekaterini Stefanidi of Greece cleared 4.85, the same height as American silver winner Sandi Morris. The bronze distance was 4.80, won by New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney.

Suhr hails from Western New York, whose populace likes to view itself as the most blue of blue collar types, and she lamented her position in saying, “Western New Yorkers are tough, we are workers, and we don’t quit. We give 100% even if we aren’t.”

Read the full statement below. We want to give her a high-five and tell her we understand, and that she should feel no shame.

Follow @NicholasMendola