Sandi Morris of Team United States looks dejected following the Women's Pole Vault qualification on day ten of the Tokyo 2020. GETTY IMAGES

It was the pole vault that chose Sandi Morris, not the American athlete who chose the sport that took her to silver and gold in Rio. And it was this sport that gave her the "worst day of her life" in Tokyo 2020, as she confessed in a television interview on NBC.

That day came when she was preparing for a preliminary competition that would determine the order in which she would compete in the final.

If at the last Olympics she felt like "a kid in a candy store", this time everything happened to her: while running, the pole vault hit the box and broke, which also caused a hip injury that forced her out of the competition.

It was not the first time she had broken a pole vault, an incident that has happened up to four times in a career that has seen her complete 20,000 jumps.

Far from seeing it as an obstacle, she turned it into a huge motivation to return to the Olympic Games, because if there is one thing she is clear about, it is that she is "stubborn as a bull".




 She is now back at her third Olympic Games, representing the United States as an alternate. Something that has also worked in her favour, that moment when "there is no pressure" and "you just" compete "as best you can and jump freely".

 On her social media, the jumper opened up. One of the worst parts of being an athlete is having the world look at your career under a microscope and having to keep your mouth shut and your eyes straight ahead because the only way forward is to perform.