Saturday
June 29, 2024 
House money.
Rutgers junior Chloe Timberg got to play with it in an unlikely place – the NCAA national championships on June 6 – and when she cashed it in, she nearly broke the bank.
Timberg had already clinched a gold medal – and Rutgers’ first NCAA women’s track and field national championship – as the only pole vaulter to clear 4.60 meters (15 feet, 1 inch). And the 4.60 meters was already a personal record (PR).
How much higher could she go?
Into the record books, it turns out. Central Bucks West’s Timberg ultimately cleared 4.71 meters (15 feet, 5.5 inches), for the NCAA championships record and the third highest vault in collegiate history. The mark would have placed fifth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 4.60 meters “was a new PR for me so I was kind of in shock. But it was a matter of refocusing. At the first attempt on the next bar, I stood myself up on the pole and I won’t lie – I was pretty fearful,” Timberg admitted. “But you put those emotions aside and say today is a new opportunity to make it a double PR day.
“We had been working a lot in practice on some big changes. Usually these are the types of changes that we would make in the offseason but we wanted to go all in,” Timberg continued. “We thought these were changes that would maximize my chances of significantly improving this year before (Olympic) trials, and hopefully hitting the mark that I need to make the team.”
While Timberg still believes she can go higher, the NCAAs were the first competition where everything came together. She also credited her competitors for helping her. “Being around the right people can definitely bring out the best in you. I was with a fantastic group of girls who are always so supportive and it was a lot of fun to compete with them,” Timberg concluded. “It made the experience so much more enjoyable.”
If Timberg hadn’t previously clinched an invite to the U.S. Olympic Trials, held in Eugene, Oregon, this coming weekend, her NCAA performance would have. The 2024 Paris Games start on July 26.
In preparation, Timberg took third place at the Katie Moon Pole Vault Classic the day after NCAAs, clearing 4.53 meters. Moon is the reigning Olympic gold medalist.
“I’m a big proponent of falling into a routine, figuring out what is best for you before a competition and sticking to that,” Timberg shared. Trials will involve a lot of planning on when and how Timberg can train, lift and eat on a somewhat normal schedule.
And trials will also involve taking a break from pole vault. Oregon “is such a beautiful area. Maybe I’ll go see the redwoods,” offered Timberg, a Big Ten Academic Honor Roll student. “Little things like that make the trip more memorable and help put me into a relaxed mindset. It takes the pressure off and it becomes just another trip doing what I love doing.”
At CB West, Timberg won the 2021 PIAA championship and made headlines for being the first Pennsylvania high schooler to clear 14 feet. As impressive as that was, her college PR is nearly 16 inches higher than her high school best.
Timberg credited “an accumulation of small improvements” that put her in the position for a chance at an Olympic berth. “In high school, I was so new to the sport that I truly didn’t understand how a lot of it worked. I didn’t understand plant mechanics or why run mechanics are so important,” Timberg shared. “Now that I have a broader perspective of what makes up the pole vault, I think it is a little easier to catch some of the bad habits in my jump and try to fix them.”
Timberg also played other sports at West – diving, running and gymnastics. She has only been a full-time vaulter for five years. “Now, I’ve accumulated a lot of reps,” she said. “You have to show up week after week and keep repping it out. You’re going to get frustrated because it is not going to progress as quickly as you’d like, but eventually it is going to manifest in your jumps.”
Surprisingly, Timberg’s biggest competition might have been herself for a chunk of her Rutgers career. After winning the Big 10 outdoor championships in June 2023, she had a very disappointing NCAA meet.
“One of the biggest things I’ve tried to focus on is my mindset,” she candidly admitted. Too often, a disappointing practice or meet carried over into the next one. “Even though I was still PR’ing, I knew that I could jump a lot higher,” she pointed out. “It was extremely frustrating to know you are capable of so much more and not see it translate into when results matter the most.
“I really hold myself to a high standard. I want to see improvement,” she continued “and that is a matter of patience. Unfortunately, I am not the most naturally patient person and it is something I am working on through my athletic career.”
But just as Timberg stresses the importance of showing up and getting physical reps to the young vaulters she coaches, she did the same thing mentally. She learned to decouple that pole vaulting is what she does rather than who she is – something with which many elite athletes struggle. She leaned on her teammates. And she broke through.
“Over time, I was more relaxed at practice and I found that to be a much more productive environment to be in,” she said. “There were times during my collegiate career where I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pole vault. I am really happy that I was able to overcome that, fully commit to it and say ‘Yes, I love this and I really do want to do it.’”
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