At No. 5 on the vault’s tightly grouped year list and with her first USA crown in 3 years, Sandi Morris is stoked about her Tokyo chances. (KEVIN MORRIS)
AS AN ATHLETE who has collected 4 silver medals in global outdoor championships, and is coming off her first U.S. title since ’22, Sandi Morris could be forgiven if she is obsessed with winning vault gold in Tokyo.
But she’s not. Of course, the two-time indoor world titlist would love to top the podium in three weeks’ time. Above all, however, it’s about the process. Getting to the runway healthy, being in a position to give it her all, and executing technique and in-competition strategic moves with her new coach, Brooke Rasnick.
“I just want to go out there and jump free,” Morris said, speaking prior to competing in the DL Final in Zürich (where she finished runner-up). “And if I can, go out and jump with the weight off my chest, don’t even think about the result I want, just focus on executing what I’ve been working so hard to get good at this season with the technical changes I’ve made and just appreciating being healthy…”
To complete her thought, Morris shifts to the ever-present aspect of getting to the runway as injury-free as possible. “It can be hard; I feel like there’s just always something popping up; whether it’s catching a little cold or tweaking an ankle. So it’s like, ‘OK, I’m feeling almost 100% right now, so let’s just go jump, let’s go have fun and I’m gonna appreciate being out there and just give it my best shot… and if I land on the podium I’m gonna be a happy gal.’”
At age 33, and having been through the peaks and valleys of international competition for more than a decade, Morris takes nothing for granted. After missing the Olympic final in ’21, she rebounded and had a fantastic ’22, winning USATF, taking 2nd at the Worlds in Eugene and ranking No. 1 in the world for a third time.
But neither of the biggest meets in ’23 (7th at Worlds) and ’24 (4th at the Trials) were up to her lofty standards. It was time for a new beginning.
“That’s when I called up [training partner Gabi Leon] and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going back to the drawing board here — square one, all options open — and I’m looking for something that works for me.’ I had a better idea of what I needed after trial and error with other coaching changes; I learned a lot between 2022 and ’24.
“The minute I sat down with Brooke [who coached Leon to the ’22 NCAA title for Louisville] for a real conversation, it was pretty clear that she was going to be a really good option for me. When things are a good fit, you know pretty quickly.
“Her strength is being able to modify training for each athlete’s individual needs, and that was very important to me when I was looking for another change. I went into it like, ‘Tthis is it; this is the last change of my career. Whoever I pick now is who I’m riding it out with until 2028.’”
In addition to partnering with Rasnick at the beginning of this year — changing the way she trains, revamping her technique — the new setup has delivered other bounties in Morris’s life. The entire Louisville coaching staff and team have been welcoming and accessible. And Rasnick, who will be taking maternity leave in the months ahead, has mentored Morris in coaching and invited her to coach her athletes while she’s out.
That ’25 was going to be special began to become apparent in June, when Morris nailed back-to-back DL victories in Rome at 15-9 (4.80) and Stockholm at 15-9¾ (4.82).
She was further encouraged at the low-key Vulcan Vault in Alabama in mid-July, the first time Rasnick was on-site with Morris for a meet — a practice run of sorts for USATF 3 weeks later. “She was like, ‘Look, I’m going to be your co-captain. I’m gonna let you take the lead when it comes to pole choices and run choices…’
“I definitely felt confident. I’d say, ‘This is a tweak I think I’m going to make, what do you think?’ And then she gives me her feedback and pretty much every decision, we saw eye to eye and it has just worked out.”
Rasnick has been especially helpful developing Morris’s strategic sense of knowing when to pass a bar during competition.
Morris has also made changes in her training and technique to adjust to the needs of the latter stage of her career. She’s added a couple steps to her approach and works on “building it up instead of gunning it from the back.” She’s also working on jumping off the ground more and swinging more from the hips, “rather than straight to my shoulders… I feel like it’s clicking and I’m gonna start seeing higher bars here pretty soon, because I’m finally feeling that blow off the top with a different jump.”
Morris’s U.S. title a month ago “really meant a lot to me,” she says. “We knew going into it that it was going to have to be strategic and that I was going to have to be on in order to, first of all, make the team and second of all, win it potentially.
“Sometimes you sacrifice so much, and you don’t know if those sacrifices are gonna pay off until they either do or they don’t. So to finally reap the benefits of all of the sacrifices I’ve made and push through some of the tough times, and reinvention of training, finding ways to get through injury, it’s been a journey.”
If ’25 has so far been a little reminiscent of ’22, it’s because Morris has learned how to rebound from the tough times. “I’ve had a sprinkling of rough seasons and I’m always just motivated to get right back at it,” she says. “If I end a season on a bad note, I’m like, ‘Oh, I hate that bad taste in your mouth and that’s not me; that’s not me.’ The signature of a warrior is just, ‘OK, you take your battle wounds, you go home, you heal, you recover; then you shield up, because there’s always another battle waiting, if you’re up for it.’
“That’s kind of what I’m all about; I grew up riding horses, too. You get bucked off a few times, you dust yourself off; you pick up your ego when you get back up on your horse.”
Morris says she has come to look up to Rasnick in a big-sister sort of way. “It’s really unique. I’ve never been coached by another woman and I think that is contributing to our ability to communicate with one another and we’re just very straightforward; there’s no tension. It’s just been really good.”
While she says that she’ll be a “happy gal” if she makes the podium or wins in Tokyo, Morris won’t be surprised. “‘I’ve put in so much, so don’t count yourself out,’ is what I tell myself,” she says. “It’s like you are fully capable of being on that podium and maybe even of winning it. But if not, as long as I go jump clear-minded and clear-spirited, I’ll be proud of that and that’s all I can ask of myself.”
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