A couple of days ago, I posted on how the track community and Internet discussion boards were talking about how Rick Suhr, the pole vault coach for Jenn Stuczynski, reacted negatively to her winning the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. I came across an article that updates what is going on in the situation. In an interview with ESPN Magazine, Jenn Stuczynski opens up and presents her side of the story on what happened. She defended Suhr’s infamous comments that he made right after her Beijing performance by saying:
“What he said to me is nothing that made me sad. I’m a 26-year-old professional athlete. I ask him to be fair coach. I don’t ask him to be a cheerleader. I want you to tell me when I jump good, and I want you to tell me when I jump bad` I think a lot of people don’t understand that this is my job. This is what I do for a living, and I have to be good at it, and I have to get better at it. And we celebrated it. But at that moment, I wanted to know why I didn’t make that bar.”
I am still puzzled by what she would be defending someone that really was not positive about her performance and was not supportive of her. After Jenn competed, Suhr said the following (which was shown on TV):
“(It’s) the same old same old. You’re losing take-off at the big heights. What are you gonna do. You gotta learn to keep take-off. You got caught at that meat grinder. I did not—and I told 10 people—I did not want to be caught in a meat grinder between 65 and 80. You had to, though. You weren’t on, you know, your warm-up didn’t go well, you were 55, you got caught up in that meat grinder. What are you gonna do. What are you gonna do. You didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it’s a silver medal. Not bad for someone who’s been pole vaulting for four years.”
Wow– hmm– that sounds like a supportive coach to me. What is surprising to me is that Suhr has not made a public comment about this situation and is appears that Jenn has to be the public figure in this situation and defend him. In this particular case, Suhr should be the person that needs to defend himself and his personal brand, not his athlete– it just appears from this article that he wants others to do his work for him.
Stucynski also wanted to go on record for her comments that were printed right after the Olympic Trials in Eugene on how she was going to “kick some Russian butt” at the Olympics. Hmm– not exactly the smartest move I would say– because Jenn’s comments soon were published in various newspapers, magazines, and Internet sites. Plus, it motivated Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia to not only win, but break the world record as well. One of the things that athletes shouldn’t do is disrespect their competitors, and Jenn did this– it comes across as being unprofessional and impacted her personal brand negatively in the process. Whether she intended to do it or not, I think she learned a valuable PR lesson from this.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
Back in 2000, my father wrote a widely syndicated article on the “Power of Positive Coaching”. It is just as valuable today as it was then.
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