Team USA’s Katie Moon wins silver in pole vault

SAINT-DENIS, France — Katie Moon added to Team USA’s medal count Tuesday with a silver medal in the women’s pole vault event at the Stade de France venue of the Paris Olympics. Moon vaulted 15 feet, 11 inches in her final successful attempt to reach the podium.

Nina Kennedy of Australia took the gold medal (16 feet, ¾ inches), while Canada’s Alysha Newman won bronze.

Moon cleared her first four vaults without a failed attempt, one of only two competitors, along with Angelica Moser of Switzerland, to do so.

For Moon, this marks back-to-back Olympic medals in the event. She won gold with a vault of 16 feet, ¾ inches at the Tokyo Games, and tied for first at the 2023 World Championship in Budapest with a vault of the same height. She is now just the second Team USA women’s pole vaulter to earn multiple Olympic medals, joining Jennifer Suhr, who took silver at the 2008 Beijing Games, and gold at the 2012 Games in London.

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Moon’s finish also gave Team USA the most medals all-time in women’s pole vault (six).

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.

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