Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr does not plan to compete in next month’s IAAF World Indoor Championships even though she has just broken her world indoor record, the American said on Tuesday.
A desire for more gold at the Rio Games and the stress of having to go through the US trials and the World Indoor Championships with just four days in between led Suhr and her coach to rule out the March 17-20 Worlds in Portland, Oregon.
Plans did not change after Suhr boosted her world record to 5.03 metres (16 feet, 6 inches) in Brockport, New York, last Saturday. “Right now, it is still off the table,” she said of the World Indoors.
“I am not sure that is something I want to do in an Olympic year,” she said of having to finish in the top two in the US Championships on March 12 and then competing against the world’s best on March 17.
“That is just asking a lot,” said Suhr, who will celebrate her 34th birthday tomorrow.
Healthy and having fun after two years of up-and-down results, the Olympic gold medallist added a centimetre to her 2013 world indoor record with her third-attempt clearance at Saturday’s college meeting.
“When I am ready to jump it doesn’t matter where I jump,” Suhr said. And the record was not a surprise. “I knew from what was happening in practice, things were working out well,” Suhr said.
One of only three women to win Olympic pole vault gold, the American hopes to challenge two-time Russian Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva’s 2009 outdoor world record of 5.06 metres later this year.
Suhr attempted to go even higher than that on Saturday, three times unsuccessfully vaulting at 5.07 metres, the highest height ever tried by a woman, athletics officials said. “The second attempt didn’t feel all that high,” Suhr said of a mark she hopes to try again at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Feb 14.
Although the World Health Organization has declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus an international health emergency, Suhr said she was not overly concerned about the Rio Games, believing US and international Olympic officials would protect athletes in Brazil, where the virus has spread rapidly.

LA Olympic bid a chance to go back to the future, says nostalgic Lewis
Carl Lewis recalls the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where he claimed athletics gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m and long jump, as the “greatest time” of his life.
Now the US legend is campaigning to bring the Games back to the city in 2024—40 years after he etched his name alongside that of Jesse Owens with his golden quadruple.
“What I remember the most, my family and I rented a house just behind the Chinese Theatre,” Lewis said, referring to the Hollywood landmark famous for the foot- and hand-prints of the stars adorning its entrance plaza.
“We all stayed in the same house. My sister was in the Olympic team, my brothers and parents were there. Mother was cooking dinner every day, it was an amazing time.
“They were sitting in the stands—I knew exactly where they were,” Lewis recalls.
“It was some of the greatest time of my entire life.
“On top of that, I competed,” added Lewis, although his recollections of that whirlwind are less clear. “I remember the running the least. It sounds weird. I competed seven out of eight continuous days, every day I had to compete tomorrow, that part—it’s a blur.
“When you go for that long period of time, you have to be mentally sharp—it’s kind of a blur ... I just remember crossing the line of the 100m and the relay. Just to do it and to win four gold medals.”
Lewis, then 23, began his Olympic quest with a clear victory in the 100m in 9.99sec. He dominated the next day in the long jump with a jump of 8.54 on his first attempt, eschewing further attempts to save energy.
He won the 200m in an Olympic record of 19.80sec, then the third-fastest ever. He anchored the 4x100m relay to victory in 37.83, a world record that stood until 1990.
Although he came into the 1984 Olympics with a realistic chance of winning four golds, Lewis said achieving the feat—especially on home soil was “something I could never imagine”.
“A lot of people don’t realize I tried four times,” added Lewis, who won 100m and long jump golds in Seoul in 1988, long jump and 4x100 relay golds in Barcelona in 1992 and long jump gold in Atlanta in 1996 to finish his career with nine Olympic gold medals.
“It takes a lot of time, a lot of luck, a lot of everything, but it all came in Los Angeles, a place I loved,” said the now 54-year-old, who was on hand at the University of California at Los Angeles on Monday to help show off Los Angeles to International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
“I just hope we can bring it back so the that the community sees what we saw, what LA showed to the world back then,” he said.
The Southern California entertainment capital, which hosted the Olympics in 1932 as well as 1984, is competing with Budapest, Paris and Rome for the right to stage the 2024 Games.
Lewis said all four candidates had their merits, but “LA” had something special. “The thing about LA, it’s a unique place to launch the future. Just like LA 1984 did for the Olympic movement—it brought it back.
“I think LA could do the same exact thing for the future.”