06 February, 2024

"The Diamond League has so much value in an Olympic year"

Photo: Marta Gorczynska

In part one of our exclusive interview with Katie Moon, the reigning Olympic, World and Wanda Diamond League champion talks about her Diamond League debut in 2016, broken poles and battling the post-Olympic blues.

Katie Moon is the reigning Olympic and World Champion in the women's pole vault. The US athlete made her Diamond League debut in Doha in 2016, and won her first series title in 2023. In the first half of a two-part exclusive interview with diamondleague.com, she talks about bouncing back after a tricky 2022 and the importance of the Wanda Diamond League in an Olympic season.

Katie, it's been more than 100 days since you won the Diamond Trophy in Eugene last year. What have you been up to since we last saw you on the circuit?

I had a great off season! I took five weeks off doing literally nothing pole vault or workout related, so that was amazing. That was something I really learned after Tokyo and what I went through in 2022, that I just really need to make sure I get a good solid break. My pre-season training has gone very well. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm really excited for this season.

2024 will be your first Wanda Diamond League season as defending champion, but you’ve been one of the biggest stars in the women’s pole vault for several years now. Do you remember your first Diamond League appearance in Doha 2016?

I feel like you never forget your first Diamond League because to get invited the first time is so special. It was one of my first competitions overseas and going to Doha is a long, long trip. I think it's 13-hour flight going there and 15 hours back. But at that point, I was just so young and excited, and I think the younger you are, the easier you can adapt to jet lag. I remember I cleared maybe two bars, but I was just so happy because it was right in line with what I had been doing. I was holding my own with the best women in the world. I remember really loving the experience.

Pole vaulting is such an intense technical discipline, and vaulters often talk about the camaraderie they have between competitors. Was that something you felt from the very start?

I feel like I felt it pretty quickly, but then I'm also the person that is obnoxiously trying to make friends with everybody (laughs). I will hug you until you have no choice but to like me. You can ask some of the girls that I'm friends with. It was definitely a little intimidating, but I was always the person that was gonna try and make friends. I’m very close with (British vaulter) Holly Bradshaw now, and I remember her saying it wasn’t always like that. So I hope I played my part in creating that environment. You may want to beat your competitors, but you can still be friends with them. Especially with our event: we're out there for hours and you're rooming with these people, you're having meals with these people. It would just be too lonely not to interact with them.

Doha was also the site of your first ever Diamond League win in 2021. Is it true that you had dumped your old poles in an airport bin a week earlier?

The week before I flew to meet in Ohio and when I came back and picked up my poles from oversized baggage, the bag bent in half. Every single pole inside had been snapped in half. And this was a little over a month before our trials. So I literally threw them out, because if they’re broken, you can't do anything about it. So yes, when I won in Doha, that was the first time I had ever touched the poles I was jumping with. It was a little bit of a roller coaster of emotions for about a week and a half. But it was cool, because I got to experiment in a way that not many pole vaulters do. I switched to a new brand, and I got to try out new options in a competition setting. So it really was a blessing in disguise.

The switch obviously worked out. You picked up three Diamond League wins that season and ultimately won gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Was there something about that pandemic year which worked in your favour?

I think so. I'm hesitant to say that too much because I know how negatively people were affected by the pandemic and so I don't wanna sound like we were just off doing whatever, not taking it seriously, but we had a facility. It's this old abandoned warehouse, kind of in the outskirts of Atlanta. So we were really able to stay in our bubble and keep training in a way that other people didn't have access to. And because of that, I really got to dial in the technical things we were trying to make. I am somebody who has always been better coming off of a long pre-season, where it's just repetition after repetition without the adrenaline. When you get into a competition and the bar goes up, if things aren't really dialled in, I tend to revert back to old bad habits. I think that's kind of human nature. You go back to what you know and what you're comfortable with, even if it's not right. And so having that full year to just rep it out over and over again really did help me.

Was there a moment - in Doha or afterwards - where you thought “I’ve arrived now, I’m one of the best, and I can be Olympic champion?”

For us US athletes, the stress is just getting to the Olympics. The Olympic trials are so massive and the stress around them is unlike anything else. If you don’t turn up on that day, you don’t make the team. So I would even say the stress of the trials is as big as the Olympics final. They're a little different, but the anxiety that I felt going into trials was just as much, if not more. Especially as somebody who had never made a team before, all we want is the ability to call ourselves an Olympian. I was number one in the world, but it would not have mattered if I had not made the Olympic team. I don't know that there was a moment where I said I'm winning this, but I think making the team and jumping 4.95m at the trials were really what instilled that confidence.

What kind of role does the Wanda Diamond League play in an Olympic year for you? As a US athlete, where there is so much pressure attached to the trials, is the Diamond League a space where you can maybe compete against the best at the highest level but the pressure's off a bit?

The Diamond League really has so much value for us. If you can go into a Diamond League and win against the best, that also creates confidence. You know that in this series, these are the women that you will see at the Olympic prelims and finals. So when you show up to the Olympics, nothing is new, nothing is different. You don't have to do anything crazy or special. I wouldn't say it allows you to relax because there's nothing relaxing about the Olympic finals. It's all very stressful in a way that I had never experienced. But going into the Olympics, having won a couple of Diamond Leagues, it does change your confidence a bit. You know that on the days you have asked my body to show up and perform and beat these women, it has done so. That doesn't mean that it's going to happen every time, but it’s a really cool feeling to have.

You've talked before about getting the post-Olympic blues after winning in Tokyo. It was a tough period, and you struggled to find your rhythm in the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich a few weeks later. Can you explain how that felt?

The thing about pole vault is no matter what - no matter what you're doing that day, whether it's short approach or full approach - you have to bring the same mental intensity every day. So I can't just on a vault day, show up feeling really blah and just give it 50 per cent. Even on days when you're feeling flat, you still have to channel that in a way that really expends a lot of energy. And I just didn't have any energy left for that. And I know it's hard for people to see that I won the Olympics and then I run through three times in Zurich, but I had literally nothing left.

Was that experience also a reason why you chose not to compete at the Wanda Diamond League Final in 2022 after winning gold at the World Championships in Eugene?

Yes. Between 2021 and 2022, I didn’t take the break I needed. I didn't feel like I could because the World Championships were in the United States. So I came into the 2022 season already pretty mentally tired and it was a very challenging year. It tested me in a lot of ways. I said if I couldn't muster it up for Worlds, then that was my sign to retire. But thankfully I did. I won gold in Eugene and I took a very long break afterwards. I had always wanted to win a Diamond League final, but I knew for the longevity of my career, I needed to take a break. And I had at that point also been having some Achilles issues and it was just every part of me needed a rest: physically, mentally and emotionally.

You've been quite open and eloquent about that experience ever since. Did you feel that was a responsibility as someone in the public eye to talk about that and say: okay, this happened, it's normal, we're human?

Definitely. I don’t feel like there's any real benefit to hiding what is going on with me. If you see my social media, it is who I am 100 percent. You're going to see pole vaulting and you're going to see the good but I'm also going talk about my family and my dog and things which are true to who I am. Growing up, I remember seeing successful people and thinking that they had it all together and they were just good because they were good and they don't struggle the way that we do. I think one of the upsides of social media is that you can be real and you can talk about it. So when I feel it’s appropriate, I do try to talk about it and not sugarcoat things.

In part two of the interview, Katie Moon talks about sharing the world title with Nina Kennedy in Budapest, winning her first ever Wanda Diamond League title in Eugene and her hopes and goals for the coming season.