The 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics is a sour memory for Sam Kendricks and one that seems to still haunt him three years later.
After making his second straight Olympics team as one of the world’s top pole vaulters the former national champion and Oxford native tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Tokyo. He was removed from the competition and put in quarantine with his dreams of a second Olympics medal dashed before he could even start.
Fast forward to this weekend in Eugene, Oregon and Kendricks once again has a more than realistic chance to make it on Team USA and contend for the podium in Paris next month, if Kendricks even goes.
Kendricks posted a strong qualifying effort on Friday to advance to Sunday’s finals where the top three vaulters who finish with the Olympic standard will a spot on Team USA. Though Kendricks had very poignant and specific comments and allegations when speaking with the media afterwards.
“I’m going to give you an answer you’re probably not going to like is I don’t like the Olympics. The Olympics screwed me,” Kendricks said to a reporter. “Everybody in Team USA left me behind. I don’t have any respect for the team that just left me in Tokyo and didn’t give me quote or even post a team picture. So, if I make this team I may not even go.”
Kendricks followed that up by adding he would still “compete my best” in Sunday’s final out of “respect for the other gentlemen on the track.”
In 2021 Kendricks posted a video on his Instagram account a day after being quarantined due to the positive test. In the video he stated: “For the sake of protocols, the Japanese say I am out. I have no recourse but to sit in isolation and watch the Olympics. But, I want you to know this: Team USA, you’re always my team and I will be rooting for the red, white and blue.”
He insisted the result was a false-positive but never retested to see if he would be cleared to compete. Instead, he flew home once he cleared Japan’s quarantine protocols for travel.
In the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Kendricks won a bronze medal in his first Summer Games.
Kendricks is a strong favorite to earn a ticket to his third straight Olympics after Friday’s qualifying results.
Heavy U.S. favorite TJ Lightfoot scratched out in the qualifying round, opening the door for Kendricks to be considered a heavy favorite out of Team USA and to contend with world champion Mondo Duplantis, former LSU vaulter, for Olympic gold.
When asked if he was serious about his statement, Kendricks doubled down with more allegations.
“Yeah, why not? If my friends don’t go why should I,” Kendricks continued. “If I got kicked out the first time in 2021 then why couldn’t do it again if they didn’t like me. We’ll see. Maybe I’m just bitter. Maybe somebody will have to talk me out of it. I have to win it first, otherwise what I say is just rambling.
“Everybody doesn’t understand the Olympics is for the mamas. The Mamas and Facebook. Everybody back home wants to have something to watch and a dog in the fight. But the sport is done every day for four years in advance. Guys like me are professionals all the time. Sometimes you don’t get the spotlight until the Olympics and they take it for charity. I don’t think so, I work all the time. It’s great. I love this sport. I take the difficulties that come with it. I’m okay with that. It’s just the Olympics didn’t like me back in 2021. Why should I like them?”
No statements from USATF or Team USA have been made as if this articles publishing.
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