EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – American Jenn Suhr has been paying more attention to pole vaulting than politics lately.
Now that she’s in the Olympics, the defending champion says that, sure, she’d like to see her biggest rival there, too.
“I’d like to compete against the best,” Suhr said Sunday at U.S. Track and Field Trials, when asked about the prospect of facing Russian world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva. “I was told that I was misinformed on some things when I made my comment before. Maybe people know a little more than I do, I don’t know. If everything is honest, then yes.”
Isinbayeva is part of the Russian team that’s been banned by track’s governing body, the IAAF, from competing in Rio de Janeiro because of a doping scandal in her home country. She is among the 68 Russians who have petitioned the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete. A decision is due July 21.
Asked a similar question about Isinbayeva in May, Suhr shared similar thoughts: that she would like to see Isinbayeva competing in Rio.