Jenn Suhr opens pole-vaulting season 'happy and healthy'

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Jenn Suhr opens pole-vaulting season 'happy and healthy'

Much has changed in Jenn Stuczynski's life since she won a silver medal in pole vaulting at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. For one thing, she's no longer Jenn Stuczynski. The Roberts Wesleyan College graduate married her coach, Rick Suhr, one year ago and is now Jenn Suhr.

Her long, dark locks are also gone, replaced by a blonde bob.

And Suhr is sitting on top of the world, with the top women's vault of 2010. She leaped 4.89 meters (16 feet, ½ inch) last June at the U.S. Outdoor National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Russian pole vaulting queen Yelena Isinbayeva had held the world's top mark the previous five years.

"I'm happy and healthy," says Jenn, who turns 29 on Feb. 5 and begins her indoor season at the Millrose Games in New York's Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Before she hit the big-time in pole vault, the Fredonia native was quite content being a basketball star at Roberts. When she graduated, she was first all-time in scoring with 1,819 points (she's now second), fourth in rebounds, second in steals and blocks and third in assists. As a senior, she was named National Christian College Athletic Association Player of the Year.

Then, she met her future husband, and her whole world changed.

Suhr was a former state wrestling champion and state runner-up in pole vault at Spencerport High. Suhr saw Stuczynski kicking a soccer ball around at Roberts in the spring of 2004. She had height (6 feet), speed and athleticism.

A 15-year coach with an impressive résumé of top athletes, he approached her about trying the pole vault.

"No way," she told him.

She had tried it as a college sophomore and "didn't like it at all."

Suhr persisted, and she finally agreed. In February 2005, 10 months after taking up the sport, she won the U.S. Indoor Nationals in Boston. A star was born.

Jenn Suhr's résumé speaks volumes about her rapid ascent: Nine national titles in 10 tries, including five consecutive outdoor crowns. A silver medal at the 2008 international indoor championships, and the silver Olympic medal from Beijing that same year.

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In the history of women's pole vaulting, only Isinbayeva has jumped higher. And only these two rivals ever have cleared 16 feet.


"What Jenn has done is simply astounding," Rick says proudly. "Nine national championships in 10 tries? Even if she had been pole vaulting her whole life, that's amazing."




If the Olympics put Jenn on the map, they made a name for Rick as well. But it was attention he could have done without.


He was miked during Jenn's vaults, and NBC showed him acting less than enthusiastically after she secured second place behind Isinbayeva's gold — an incredible feat given her relative inexperience in the sport.

"It's the same old, same old," Suhr told her in front of the world. "You lose in takeoff at the big heights. What're you gonna do? ...

"You weren't on. You know? The warm-up didn't go well. ... What're you gonna do? Didn't have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it's a silver medal."

NBC commentator Tom Hammond criticized Suhr, telling colleague Dwight Stones: "Wow, am I missing something, Dwight? Didn't she just win a silver medal, beaten only by the world record holder? Uh, where's the joy?"

More than two years later, Rick Suhr defends his actions.

"That's the way I coach," he says. "The day I change is probably the day I shouldn't be coaching anymore. The more successful you become, the more people will dislike you and criticize you. I grew up in Spencerport, going into a wrestling match where most of the people were cheering against you. I could handle the criticism."

Jenn found it much harder to handle. She would visit online track sites and read nasty comments from people ("anonymous cowards hiding behind keyboards," Rick called them) ripping her outspoken coach.

"I was like, 'I can't believe they're saying this,'"' Jenn says. "They must hate me. And they must hate him."

Rick decided some changes were in order.

Mr. and Mrs.

The coach and athlete had been coy about their relationship for years, never admitting to anything more than a close bond. But on Dec. 19, 2009, Rick asked Jenn to be his wife. He had received permission from her father — "I'm a traditional guy," he says — and popped the question at Crescent Beach Restaurant in Greece. Seated across from the happy couple were Jenn's parents, Mark and Sue.

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"He got down on one knee and did it the traditional way," Jenn says. "And in front of my parents! Brave man!"

It was a big day for one other reason, too.

"What's funny is, it was his birthday," Jenn says, "but I was reading the wrong calendar. I went all day without mentioning his birthday until he proposed and said, 'It's my birthday.'"

Jenn had cut her hair the day before. The new look proved a good luck charm.

"I always joke that if I'd known he was going to propose, I would have cut it sooner," she says.

"That was a good haircut," Rick adds. "When you get asked to marry you the next day, that's a good haircut."

Two weeks later, on Jan. 3, 2010, the couple were married at a church in Spencerport before a small group.

"We had 10 people from each side," Rick says. "We didn't want cameras. No flash bulbs, no autographs, no video."

Just one big ring. Jenn doesn't know how many carats and says she doesn't care. But it's an impressive diamond, and it gets a lot of attention.

"Even people I don't know will stop me and admire it," she says. "I love it."

The reception was at Crescent Beach, one of their favorite places, and the brief honeymoon was spent at a Pittsford hotel. Two weeks later, Jenn announced her nuptials and name change at a Millrose Games news conference in New York.

Rick asked his new wife to make a few other changes that he felt would make them both stronger.

"The first thing I said after we were married is, 'I want to quit the Internet and I want to quit cell phones for a year,'" he says. "Jenn threw her cell phone in the garbage. We only had one cell phone between us, and still do. We cut the cable right out of our house. No reality TV."

Rick's reasoning was simple.

"It was time to get back to basics and prioritize: God, our families. It was like cleansing your mind."

Jenn stopped visiting Internet chat rooms and made a discovery.

"If you don't read that stuff, you don't know what's being said," she says.

The couple lives in Riga, in a 2,500-square-foot house built by Suhr in 1997. Out back is a 3,600-square-foot Quonset hut (also constructed by Suhr) where Jenn trains.

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They also own a lake house in Kendall.


Jenn says marriage has "changed our dynamic."


"It makes your priorities a little different," she says. "Pole vault is just a small part of life. Marriage is forever."





It hasn't changed their competitive nature.


"We compete a lot when we play Yahtzee at home," Rick says. "I'm winning in that . . . "


Rick has two sons who attend Caledonia-Mumford High School. Kodiak, 18, plays basketball. Madison, 15, was the quarterback for a Red Raiders team that reached the Class D state final.

Rick and Jenn laugh when asked if any little Suhrs are in the future.


"We'll leave that in God's hands," Rick says, "and see what He has in store for us."

Feeling strong

Jenn, who is sponsored by adidas, is healthier than she has been in three years. Last year, a nagging Achilles injury limited her to just three meets, yet she was able to be the world's best

"It was frustrating," she admits. "But that's behind me."

She's ready for Millrose this week, then the USA Track and Field Championships Feb. 26-27 in Albuquerque, N.M., and the IAFF World Track and Field Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Aug. 27-Sept. 4. Next year, it will start all over again, with the U.S. Olympic qualifiers and the Summer Games in London.

Jenn can wait. The Olympics exhausted her, and she is enjoying the "in between years."

"(The Olympics) will be here again soon enough," she says. "I'm not looking forward to them or dreading them."

Rick is energized by Jenn's top world mark for 2010.

"Isinbayeva had held that spot for so long," he says. "It'll be interesting to see how that affects her. There's a crack in the armor now."

The question is, how far can Jenn go? Has she peaked as she approaches her 29th birthday?

Her coach says no.

"I jumped my highest at 30 years old," Suhr says. "Jenn is the same age as Yelena, but Yelena had a decade start on us. It takes an athlete about a decade to reach their peak. For Jenn, that would be 32."

London is calling. But first, Jenn Suhr must get there. And then, perhaps, she'll be able to topple Isinbayeva, the greatest female pole vaulter in history.

"Winning a gold would be awesome," Jenn says.

She keeps her silver medal at home.

"There's room for another one," she adds with a laugh.

JMAND@DemocratandChronicle.com