Olympics: Obiena proud, hurting after emotional run in Paris

Photo source: ernestobienapv

Obiena ended his 2024 Paris Olympics run full of emotions, and a 4th place finish in the men’s pole vaulting category in State de France.

EJ Obiena was the last vaulter out of all the 12 qualifiers for the finals of the men’s pole vault, and the World No. 2 pole vaulter opted to go on the 5.50M jump as his opening height. Despite having troubles during the qualifiers, he easily cleared his opening jump, releasing a sigh of happiness as he landed.

For the 5.70M height, Obiena confidently ran for that jump and only needed one attempt to clear the bar as well. 

It was the first time for this Summer Games that the vaulters will go for 5.80M height. For his first attempt, Obiena failed to clear the bar as he hit it going down. He decided to pass on the height and use his attempts for 5.85M instead.

The 5.85M was a challenging height for most of the vaulters as the remaining number continued to drop down. With pride and faith, Obiena cleared the 5.85M on his first attempt, simultaneously clearing his slate back to zero. 

There were 7 vaulters left in the competition to clear the bar that was set to 5.90M. This wasn’t a problem for Obiena as he cleared the bar on his first attempt, immediately being one of the leaders and on the hunt for the medal. 

As the number goes down to 6, the bar sets higher to 5.95M. Obiena’s first attempt looked clear as he went up, but hit the bar going down. He decided to use another attempt at the 5.95M height, and unfortunately failed when he hit the bar again.

EJ used his third and last attempt for the 5.95M, but the athlete fell short. He finished Top 4 in the men’s pole vault. Compared to his finish of Top 11 in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Obiena surely made progress and a much better finish. 

In an interview with One Sports, EJ opened up about how painful it was to miss a medal. He also talked about how he felt about the results. “It’s painful. I missed a medal with one jump and it wasn’t far.”

“There’s a lot of things that happened this year. I’m thankful that I got to the finals, definitely. But at the same time, I’m disappointed because it wasn’t far. Literally the same height, I missed it by one attempt. One attempt at an Olympic medal.”

“Sports, it’s beautiful, but it’s also brutal. And I understand that, and going in, like I said, [I’m lacking consistency]. I felt like I needed a little bit more time, but you know, it’s the Olympics, it’s not going to wait for anybody,” he said, sharing how despite the various physical problems he faced, it was his lack of consistency that highly contributed to the results.  

While Obiena felt gratitude towards those who backed him up every step of the way, he shared that the pain of not winning does not subside. “With fourth place, I can say I’ve done everything that I can and I’m proud of the effort of my team, myself, and everybody who made it possible, but it doesn’t make it less painful.”

“It’s not something I expected; it’s not something I was aiming for. I’m happy for everybody who got a medal, they deserved it. I’m happy for my friends, but it doesn’t give me less pain.”

When asked about what his coach, Vitaly Petrov, said to him after the competition, he shared: “He said that it’s not the end of the world, but it feels like the end of the world right now.”

“I needed to take time to kind of reflect on the whole thing, and everything that I’ve been through, and that’s where my emotions kind of come out.”

Obiena felt apologetic to everyone after missing a podium and medal to take home, “I apologize. I promised I was going to go back after Tokyo and do better… I did, but I would say it didn’t change in my book. I came up short, so I’m really sorry. I apologize for it. We’ll see how it goes,” he emotionally said. 

Obiena’s plans after the Olympics are unknown at the moment as the 28-year-old wants to process everything that has happened first. 

Greece’s Emmanouil “Manolo” Karalis got third place, USA’s Sam Kendricks won second place, and Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis claimed the gold. 24-year-old Mondo also broke his own world record after he cleared a 6.25M bar height.