As a pole vaulter, Sydney Walter is accustomed to blocking out distractions while charging straight ahead.
It’s no different now that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo have been pushed back one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former Sydney Clute, a 2012 Center Grove graduate who set nearly every women’s pole vaulting record at Indiana University, was training for the United States Olympic Trials when her world — and everyone else’s — changed.
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“Watching everything unfold, I don’t think anyone was really surprised, so it’s hard to be too disappointed,” said Walter, 26. “Obviously, it’s hard when you’re working for something, but I look at it as a temporary delay and one more chance to get stronger, faster and better at the pole vault.
“I’ve gotten really good at being patient and making the most of the opportunity when it presents itself.”
The trials were to be held June 19-28 at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon, a facility Walter knows well having been a three-time All-American there at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.
The International Olympic Committee said the Summer Olympics will now run from July 23 to August 8, 2021. USA Track & Field has not yet rescheduled the trials.
Walter’s list of collegiate accomplishments is extensive.
A three-time Big Ten Conference meet champion, she was a four-time All-American (including once indoors) with her best finish being fourth at both the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships. She holds the IU women’s career pole vaulting standards both indoors (4.35 meters/14 feet, 3 1/4 inches) and outdoors (4.55/14-11).
In 2017, Walter was honored as the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year.
Since then, she’s worked through adversity in order to continue her training. A nagging injury to her left knee sidelined Walter for three months in the fall of 2018, but she worked her way back to qualify for the United States Indoor Nationals the following February.
Unfortunately, Walter still had to miss the meet after she was diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), an inner-ear disorder which often causes one to feel as if he or she is spinning. The situation caused another three-month delay in training while Walter completed physical therapy.
“I couldn’t jump without getting dizzy. It was really bad,” Walter said. “An uncontrollable feeling, and not knowing if it would ever go away.”
Walter faced another two-month delay after straining an intercostal muscle between her ribs, then finally started to feel like herself again last summer. She competed in a couple of meets to see where she stood, and in February she took part in the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Soaring a height of 4.50 meters (14 feet, 9.16 inches), Walter placed ninth.
Now living in Bloomington with her husband Kyle, Walter had been training with her vaults coach at Indiana University, Jake Wiseman, for approximately 20 hours a week. The COVID-19 crisis halted all athletic events and all formal training leading up to them, meaning Walter hasn’t vaulted inside IU’s Gladstein Fieldhouse since March 6.
Walter, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing in three years and her master’s degree in tourism management in 2017, works part-time from home as Indiana University’s academic services and excellence academy coordinator.
And, yes, despite all the limitations put on her, Walter still trains.
“I think our neighbors think I’m crazy because I’m pulling a (weighted) sled and doing sprints in our neighborhood,” Walter said. “And I’m fortunate that our garage is set up with a weight room, so I don’t feel that I’m going to lose any strength. The hardest thing is not being able to pole vault, but we’ve all done this long enough that it will come back pretty quickly.”
And while no one knows what the sports world will look like a year from now, Walter is preparing to be her best if and when the U.S. Olympic Trials commence.
Given all she has overcome, it would have been easy to quietly retire from pole vaulting.
“Those thoughts have definitely gone through my mind, but I really don’t think I’ve reached my potential,” Walter said. “I want to have that chance and have these experiences. It would be hard to say I’m going to be done because the Olympics have been postponed for one year.”
