TOKYO (USD/KELO.com) — South Dakota alumnus Chris Nilsen captured an Olympic silver medal in the pole vault on Tuesday at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The three-time NCAA champion outlasted all other competitors except Sweden’s Armand Duplantis. Brazil’s Thiago Braz took bronze.
Nilsen and Duplantis were the only men to clear a height of 5.97 meters. Duplantis cleared 6.02 meters on his next attempt, a height Nilsen could not equal.
What a 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑰𝑳𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑮 competition!@ChrisNilsen2 takes home the silver medal in his Olympic debut!
He'll head home with a new personal best height of 19-7 (5.97m).
: https://t.co/Pjs1N5LmEZ#OlympiansMadeHere x #GoYotes
pic.twitter.com/0mrK2zkeE3
— South Dakota Track & Field / Cross Country (@SDCoyotesXCTF) August 3, 2021
A 2020 graduate of the University of South Dakota, Nilsen made his Olympic debut in Tokyo. He was perfect in the U.S. Olympic Trials, vaulting up to 19-4 ¼ (5.90m) without a miss in the competition to take home the gold.
Nilsen was the gold medalist at the 2019 Pan American Games and also competed with Team USA at the 2017 World Championships. As a collegian at South Dakota, Nilsen was a three-time NCAA Champion, the 2020 USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year and graduated with the NCAA indoor record in the pole vault. He vaulted a personal best of 19-6 ¼ (5.95m) at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships, breaking his own meet record.
Nilsen is USD’s fourth-ever Olympian on record. He follows in the footsteps of his coach, Derek Miles, who qualified for three Olympics – 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London. Miles earned the bronze in the pole vault at the 2008 Olympic Games.
(Britni Smith, USD Sports Information, contributed to this report.)
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