GENEVA, Ohio, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- SPIRE
Institute and Academy is pleased to announce that Katerina
Stefanidi, the gold medalist in pole vault at the 2016 Summer
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,
will return to the organization's complex near Lake Erie to train for the 2021 Olympics in
Tokyo, Japan. Stefanidi will
continue her training with her husband, Mitch Krier.
Prior to the Rio Olympics, while training at SPIRE, Stefanidi
set a national record with a huge leap at 4.90m at the Milrose Games, ranking her fourth in
the event of all time. She continued to improve her personal bests,
ultimately racking up a jump of 4.80m
for the bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in
Portland. At the 2016 Olympics,
she won the gold medal with a jump of 4.85 meters.
"SPIRE is extremely excited to have Katerina Stefanidi the
upcoming months to prepare for the 2021 Olympic Games. Katerina and
her husband/coach will be utilizing the indoor track and field
facilities as well as SPIRE Performance. This is a such a great
testament to the outstanding facilities that SPIRE has to offer
every athlete," said Tim Mack, one
of SPIRE's Track and Field coaches and a gold medalist himself in
the sport during the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
After being voted European Athlete of the Year in 2017,
Stefanidi increased her collection of medals, taking third at the
World Indoor Championships in 2018 with a vault of 4.80m and first at the 2018 European
Championships in Berlin with a
vault of 4.85m. Later that year, she
won the Diamond League series with a vault of 4.87m. She won again in 2019 with 4.83m. She took the bronze medal at the 2019
Worlds, with a vault of 4.85m.
In 2020, with most sporting events cancelled or postponed due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, Stefanidi participated in a virtual event
organized my World Athletics called The Ultimate Garden Clash,
during which competitors collected as many vault clearances as
possible during two, 15-minute periods on separate practice tracks.
Stefanidi won top honors at the virtual competition with 34
clearances.
SOURCE SPIRE Institute and Academy (IA)