A while ago, I had posted on the the story of how pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski, who got the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics, and her coach Rick Suhr were faced with a media frenzy over his reaction to her getting 2nd to the world recoldholder in the event. NBC showed a clip of Suhr with a mic on and how he reacted to Stuczynski’s performance. Suhr said to Stucynski the following after she performed in the pole vault:
“You, you weren’t on. You know? The warm-up didn’t go well. You went 55. You got caught up in that meet grinder. What’re you gonna do? What’re you gonna do? Didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it’s a silver medal. Not bad for someone who’s a pole vaulter four years.”
Hmmm, wow– it is one of those examples where you are watching the television and ask yourself, “Did he just say what I think he said?” The result caused an uproar on discussion boards, web sites, and blogs in not only the track and field community, but among traditional news media web sites as well.
Now, both Stuczynski and Suhr have come out and wanted to get their side of the story across. In this article, both talk about what challenges they both had to face due to this crisis. What is interesting about this article is that it has both a story and clips that people can read and watch. After reading this story, there were several points that were brought up that I found interesting:
- Stuczynski mentioned how she and Suhr changed their flights back home in order to avoid a TV news crew at the local airport. Hmm– I would say that isn’t the best crisis management strategy. It is best to face the fact that if you are a high profile person– whether it is in athletics or politics or business– you have to be one with dealing with the media. It may be tough, but you can’t avoid it. And by avoiding the media– it comes across negatively.
- Suhr describes the relationship that he has with Stuczynski as being “a close, personal relationship that has nothing to do with pole vaulting.” Okay– well, this is an interesting quote– exactly what does this mean? This is the first time that Suhr has mentioned this. But after looking at the NBC clip, their relationship really doesn’t come across as that– but that is my personal opinion.
- Suhr did react when the reporter asked about how he felt regarding the discussion posts that focused on this crisis by saying “”Anonymous cowards hiding behind keyboards. They’re anti-pole vaulting and they’re setting American pole vaulting back.” Well, I don’t think that it will make these people on the discussion boards too happy– there are many ways to rephrase this to be more proactive and strategic.
Overall, this is an interesting situation of how the internet, blogs, and web sites created more of a media frenzy and escalated a crisis to the point where the parties involved had to address this to the media to get their side of the story. Personally, I think that both Stuczynski and Suhr learned a couple of valuable crisis manangement and public relations lessons through this– whether or not they are proactive in the future– we will have to wait until next season.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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