Todd Clausen

@ToddJClausen

Her husband, Rick Suhr, said the Olympic pole vaulter has become "quite ill the last two days."

Defending Olympic pole vault champion and Riga resident Jenn Suhr is battling some sort of illness on the eve of this year's event in Rio de Janeiro, according to her husband and coach, Rick Suhr.

"Seems so unfair, we came here in the greatest shape of our life," Rick Suhr posted on his Facebook page Monday morning. "(Four) years of total dedication eaten up in one nasty virus that is only getting worse."

"Could have come from anywhere," Rick Suhr said in a text later Monday morning. "You are exposed to so many things here. She is pretty sick right now. We just don't know what it is."

Jenn Suhr, 34, won a silver medal for the U.S. in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and a gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She is coming off a tremendous indoor season in which she broke her own world record, soaring 16 feet, 6 inches in a meet at SUNY Brockport in January, then setting a meet record of 16-3/4 to win gold at the World Indoor Championships.

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She holds 11 American records, 16 American titles, five world medals and two world records, but she’s not guaranteed a spot in the finals in Rio. The women's pole vault begins Tuesday morning.

"This morning it has really kicked in, she has lot her voice almost completely," he wrote. "Hoping the antibiotics and other meds given by our doctors help. But this does not look good. We will fight the good fight. God has blessed us with Olympic gold and silver in the past. So I can't be angry. I am just so disappointed."

In a separate text Monday morning, Rick Suhr — a former Spencerport wrestler — reaffirmed that Jenn Suhr plans to compete in Tuesday's qualifying, "If we have to crawl down the runway!"

Another gold rush at hand for pole vault queen Jenn Suhr

TClausen@gannett.com

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