Joe Rexrode

USA TODAY NETWORK

RIO DE JANEIRO – Reigning Olympic champion pole vaulter Jenn Suhr competed through illness but could not come close to her best at Olympic Stadium, finishing tied for seventh after failing to clear 4.70 meters.

Suhr, 34, whose personal best is an indoor record of 5.03 meters, could only speak for about a minute after the competition was over, before breaking down in tears.

The Riga resident said that in warmups she cleared 4.90 meters and felt good, after coughing up blood in the morning because of some kind of illness that has plagued her for most of her time in Rio. Then things changed when the competition began.

“It’s like, after warmups, everything shut down,” she said. “I’ve never had them shake and just give out like they have been. And I kept moving my mark up because I couldn’t get to the box. And moving it up and it just … it is such a crappy feeling to know you worked four years for this, and for this to happen. It’s embarrassing too.”

In North Chili, hundreds of people crammed into the dining hall at Roberts Wesleyan College, Suhr's alma mater, to watch her compete.

Joanne DeGroff, who lives near campus with her husband, Peter, said Suhr was in a tough situation to begin with. On one hand, Suhr has already achieved the highest greatness, but competing in Rio while sick doesn't bode well for her, DeGroff said.

"She has nothing left to prove; she already has a gold (medal)," said Joanne DeGroff. "But she's trained for so long and so hard. She needs to bring a sort of completion to her training efforts."

The DeGroffs watched Suhr warm up on a large projector screen while the staff at Roberts Wesleyan served the crowd ice cream and smoothies. In between vaults, the staff played Suhr trivia, asking the crowd specific questions about her career.

The crowd correctly guessed her birth city as Fredonia and guessed that Suhr holds the all-time women's basketball scoring record at Roberts Wesleyan.

Also in the crowd was Roberts Wesleyan track and field coach Merl McGinnis, who regularly watches Suhr do conditioning drills at the campus weight room and swimming pool.

McGinnis said Suhr's illness prevented her from gaining enough speed to hit the pole vault correctly.

Speed is very important in Suhr's technique, the coach said, and when she didn't get the speed she needed, "it was difficult to get the height that she needed."

"You could tell on her face that she wasn't her normal self," the coach said.

Suhr’s husband and coach, Rick, posted on Facebook about her illness earlier Friday, writing: “I ask all her supporters to not expect anything today. … The result won't matter today, but this will be our greatest Olympic effort! Lets all watch and appreciate what Jenn is willing to go thru to represent America.”

Clearly laboring and in discomfort, Suhr got past 4.60 on her second try but didn’t really come close at 4.70. She won gold in London in 2012 by clearing 4.75 meters.

“I just feel bad,” Suhr said. “I feel bad that I couldn’t do it for everyone back home…”

And then Suhr covered her eyes with her arms and wept, before leaving the interview area.

Four years after failing to make the Olympic team, American Sandi Morris won silver by clearing 4.85 meters. Greece’s Ekaterina Stefanidi won gold by virtue of one fewer miss than Morris on the night. Eliza McCartney of New Zealand won bronze.

Suhr began to feel ill earlier this week and struggled through the preliminary round on Tuesday, while competing at about 50 percent, according to a post by Rick Suhr on Facebook.

"I thought I came in pretty hard, but I know that I was off in terms of my head, and my perception was off," Jenn Suhr said on Tuesday. "Physically, I feel like I can vault higher than that, but mentally I’m not."

Suhr, a 2004 graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College, was a basketball star in college and took up pole vaulting in 2004. She is one of the most accomplished athletes in track and field with 17 U.S. championships and 11 American records. She won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics and gold in 2012 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 The College at Brockport in January, then setting a meet record of 16-3/4 to win gold at the World Indoor Championships.

In a Facebook post on Friday afternoon, Rick Suhr told fans of his wife to temper their expectations.

"It is what it is," he wrote. "Nothing to blame just some really bad luck. I ask all her supporters to not expect anything today. If this was any other meet, any other place or time we get treatment and cancel out."

Later in the post he wrote: "The result won't matter today, but this will be our greatest Olympic effort! Let's all watch and appreciate what Jenn is willing to go thru to represent America. I told her no matter how tough or ugly this is you already won by being a great Olympic Champion. I can only hope the next Olympic Champ can honor the title with the integrity and respect and humbleness that Jenn has."

Besides the 2012 gold medal, she has Olympic silver from 2008. She set a world indoor record of 16-5 1/2 on Jan. 30 at The College at Brockport, and won the world indoor championship in March.​

Includes reporting from staff writer Khristopher J. Brooks.