Olympic Women's Finals - Isi 5.05 WR, Stuczynski 4.80

[SlickVT]

Its obvious that Rick is a good coach. The resume' speaks for itself.

That being said, this interchange of words was extremely mild compared to what I had been told he yelled at her on stage in Reno in '07. Multiple first hand accounts said that you didn't want children anywhere withing in earshot of that stage. So was this unexpected?

The wrestling attitude and high expectations of the Olympics along with the "Isi rivalry" probably led to this.

I thought it was low, but thats just me.

Congrats Jennski. You have made us all proud. Alot can happen in four years and you are certainly far from being finished.

Go get 'em.

[dj]

hey

first... Jenn is as talented as isi... or more.. not the other way around. if you "check her numbers" she could add 30cm to her vault just by staying on the "smaller" pole and raise her grip..

second... rick agreed to be "miked" before the competition..

dj

[BruceFlorman]

second... rick agreed to be "miked" before the competition..

Did he? It was my impression that the audio was being picked up by one of those hand-held dish-mikes like NFL Films uses to pick up the on-field chatter from the football players.

[kmonty51]

Can anyone tell us how Petrov interacts with his athletes after a sub par performance, especially at a very big meet? I'm starting to wonder if his athletes ever have sub par performances!

[rainbowgirl28]

second... rick agreed to be "miked" before the competition..

Did he? It was my impression that the audio was being picked up by one of those hand-held dish-mikes like NFL Films uses to pick up the on-field chatter from the football players.

I'm pretty sure he had a mic on his shirt and knew that the conversation was being recorded.

[rainbowgirl28]

Can anyone tell us how Petrov interacts with his athletes after a sub par performance, especially at a very big meet? I'm starting to wonder if his athletes ever have sub par performances!

Well Murer is one of his athletes and she couldn't vault well after losing a pole. Gibilisco is another one of his athletes and he's been in a world of trouble this past year. Petrov has plenty of athletes fail to perform well, he's just been mostly focused on Isinbayeva since she switched to him. Can't blame him, I am sure the money is very good and the attention has been positive.

[BruceFlorman]

From the start of this whole controversy, I’ve been a little confused about Suhr’s “meat grinder” comments, so a few minutes ago I went and watched the video for a third, fourth and fifth time. Obviously he’s saying that he didn’t want Jenn taking a lot of jumps in the 4.65 – 4.80 range, but it was difficult for me to see how she could’ve gotten “sucked” into jumping at heights that she didn’t want to. Here’s her scoring line, and looking at where she passed, it almost made me think that they’d had some sort of miscommunication.

Code: Select all

                                   430 445 455 465 470 475 480 485 490 495 505
STUCZYNSKI Jennifer   USA 4.80     -   -   o   -   o   xo  o   -   xxx

Having successfully gone up a 15cm increment earlier, and being willing to try a 10cm increment later, why would he have her take two shots at 4.75 and another at 4.80?

If we can put aside the nuances of tone and body language for a moment, and just look at the words, here’s my own word-for-word transcription of what he says on the video:

“It’s the same ol’ same old. You’re losing takeoff at the big heights. What’re ya gonna do? (shrug)
“Gotta learn to keep takeoff.
“Ya got… Ya got caught at that meat grinder. I did not… and I told ten people… I didn’t want to be caught in that meat grinder between 4.65 and 4.80.
“You had to though. You weren’t on… you know. Your warm-up didn’t go well… you were at 55… ya got caught up in that meat grinder. What’re ya gonna do? (shrug) What’re ya gonna do? (shrug)
“Ya didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh.
“Hey, it’s a silver medal. (shrug) Not bad for someone who’s pole vaulted four years.” (looks down)

It’s surely an indication of what an old fart I am that it took me so long to figure out that he’s texting someone there at the end, when he looks down. It had initially seemed like a dismissive gesture, but now I think maybe it was more like he was in the middle of something when Jenn came over to talk. The video picks them up in mid-conversation, so we don’t really know what was going on right before.

Anyway - getting back to the “meat grinder” thing - from the video I saw, and to my not-terribly-sophisticated eye, her clearances at both 4.55 and 4.70 looked “on” enough to me. Maybe a little ragged at the top, but not enough to change the game-plan. If she’d passed 4.75 altogether and still made 4.80 on her first try (lot’sa conjecture, I know), she’d have been going for 4.90 on her fourth jump of the night instead of her sixth, and would’ve been a lot more likely to make it. So does anybody have an idea about what was so not “on” about her prior jumps that caused him/them to decide jumping 4.75 was necessary?

[kmonty51]

Can anyone tell us how Petrov interacts with his athletes after a sub par performance, especially at a very big meet? I'm starting to wonder if his athletes ever have sub par performances!

Well Murer is one of his athletes and she couldn't vault well after losing a pole. Gibilisco is another one of his athletes and he's been in a world of trouble this past year. Petrov has plenty of athletes fail to perform well, he's just been mostly focused on Isinbayeva since she switched to him. Can't blame him, I am sure the money is very good and the attention has been positive.

I do realize that...just a little tongue in cheek humor. Mostly, I'm trying to get a feel for how coaches like Petrov interact with their athletes after a "disappointing" performance.

[altius]

I have not seen the video referred to but accept the statement from a friend like Dan West about what occurred. It does seem as though Rick's behaviour was uncalled for. However that said I might remind everyone that "If you havent walked a mile in my shoes dont critIcize me" and "He who is without sin should cast the first stone". Some readers should take particular notice of this thought because it is clear that some folk had a lot of emotion/ jingoism invested in Jennifer's performance - especially an almost pathetic personal and patriotic need for her to beat Isinbayeva.

I am not sure what Suhr was talking about when he mentioned the meatgrinder but know how I personally interpret it! Indeed anyone who has coached at a high level knows the maelstrom of feelings you have when four, six or even eight years of commitment goes down the drain for reasons that you have little or no control over. It can feel like you have been through a meatgrinder, A few years ago the best coach I know was saved from a similar situation because a friend intervened, before that coach could tell the athlete what he thought about her performance - when she too had won a silver medal in a major championship.

If there is anything to learn from this is that coaches and athletes must take on board the samurai credo "If you have one eye on winning you only have one eye to watch your opponents sword" because it seems to me that the focus of the pair was on winning - on beating Isinbayeva - It was almost inevitable that when that did not happen something or somebody would get sliced.

Finally remember that St. Peter and St. Paul died many years ago - the rest of us are mere humans, with all that implies about the way we may behave under pressure.

[rainbowgirl28]

So does anybody have an idea about what was so not “on” about her prior jumps that caused him/them to decide jumping 4.75 was necessary?

I too thought she would pass, but Feofanova was up first and made it on her first, so I figured that was why Jenn jumped at 4.75. If she had made it on her first she would have been ahead of Feofanova on misses. I don't know why she was having doubts about her ability to make 4.80, but she must have had a little doubt. Because sure enough Golub. made 75 too eventually and had Jenn passed 75 and missed 80 she would have been medaless.

[Cooleo111]

It seems like many people are disregarding the previous comments made by Rick Suhr that NBC showed...in all of them he appeared very positive towards Jenn's performance. I think it is possible that Jenn approached Rick with a negative attitude and/or negative comments, as many second place finishers might, and Rick then had to react accordingly to her feelings. In that hypothetical situation, it looked like Rick agreed that things could have gone better, but overall wanted to remind her that she is a relative newcomer and did extremely well for her situation, regardless of other factors that may have come into play.
At any rate, I think Altius hits the nail on the head in saying that nobody knows the true nature of Rick and Jenn's relationship. We as spectators may have to put a little faith in him as her coach and assume that to some extent he is handling things the way they ought to be handled.

[KYLE ELLIS]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Suhr

read the 2008 olympic controversy on this page. lol