South Dakota’s silver medal winner shares Olympic experience

By Mick Garry, for Pigeon605

Chris Nilsen’s system for getting where he is today — which is a lot higher than where he started by almost any measure — will go unchanged as he moves onward and upward as a silver medal winning pole vaulter representing the United States.

Was there a big difference competing in the pole vault at the Tokyo Summer Games in relation to previous competitions involving the best of the best for this former University of South Dakota athlete?

No, Nilsen said in so many words. That realization came afterward. And it was stunning.

“It meant everything,” he said. “It meant the culmination of every childhood dream that I ever dreamed up coming to life. And it happened to be at the exact perfect spot. It’s really hard to describe a perfect scenario without using the word ‘perfect.’ It was almost euphoric with how it ended up turning out.”

In company with his coach, former bronze medal winner Derek Miles, training had never been specifically aimed at the Olympics. It had been aimed at getting better in a general sense and being able to prove that, when the situation called for it, in a specific sense.

“We didn’t go there looking for a medal,” Nilsen said. “We went there looking to do our best. When you start thinking about medals, it can mean you’re focusing on what others are doing. That’s not what we wanted. When your coach is a former Olympian who competed as one of the best in the world for more than a decade, you learn to approach it like that. It wasn’t about getting a medal.”

In preparation for the finals that took place early on Aug. 3 in the United States — a Tuesday night in Tokyo — Nilsen was feeling good about the potential to do well.

While warming up for the finals, he was unofficially clearing heights that would put him in medal contention. Other vaulters likely were doing the same during the warmup time, of course, so that piece of the evening didn’t mean much until later.

“I was just playing it by ear,” Nilsen said. “I was expecting it to go well, but I wasn’t going to get ahead of myself.”

The silver medal was his, nevertheless. By focusing on the bar rather than the circumstances, he carved out a clean route to the end of the competition. As other competitors began to drop off, it became more and more apparent that Nilsen was at his best.

In this case, that meant he was headed for a 5.97-meter vault, or 19 feet and 7 inches, to finish ahead of everyone but Mondo Duplantis, a contemporary of Nilsen’s and former high school rival who grew up in Louisiana but competed for Sweden at the Olympics because his mother is from there.

In the moments after the competition was finished, Duplantis, the current world record holder who went 6.02 meters, or 19-foot-9, for the gold, was hugging Nilsen and shouting his congratulations.

It’s a rivalry with a history and made for good TV. It goes back to when both were emerging as nationally prominent vaulters in their teens. Nilsen was in Kansas City clearing bars no high school athletes had ever cleared, and Duplantis was doing the same in Louisiana.

Years later, they shared the podium in Tokyo.

“I think you could say it started as a friendly rivalry,” Nilsen said. “It has now turned into an adult friendship. It’s basically been going along this way since my junior year of high school. He’s a cool dude. We hang out at meets and have fun with it.”

Nilsen’s return to Vermillion was big on small-town charm. It included an open-air ride into town, a gathering of more than 300 on the USD campus and assorted luminaries all seeking to pat their Olympian on the back either literally or via their cheers.

Photo by Aaron Packard

The scene was right out of a movie where in watching it you’re saying to yourself, “These kinds of things don’t happen in real life,” he said.

“I’ve never really been one for big crowds or being the center of attention or anything like that,” Nilsen said that day in Vermillion to a crowd that included USD president Sheila Gestring and athletic director David Herbster.

“But, you know, you never really realize how many people are supporting you from other places that you just don’t know until you see them all in one room when you’re talking in front of them.”

The plan is to continue vaulting and continue tapping into Miles’ expertise. Soon, Nilsen will be headed for Europe for more meets and more opportunities to prove he can get better.

He will continue to represent those who sponsor him and have helped him. That includes entities such as Nike and Build Your Base, a program connected to the South Dakota Beef Council that promotes the benefits of beef for athletes. The list also includes his alma mater, which showed up in full force for a memorable homecoming.

“I think you’d have to say I made the right decision to come to USD,” he said. “It seems like things are turning out pretty well.”