CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW): Former UVA TFXC pole vaulter Bridget Williams won her first USTF Olympic Trials gold medal after finishing top of the field in the Women’s Vault final on Sunday in Oregon. After Friday’s qualifying round, she entered the final round at the bottom of the field thanks to three straight misses at 4.53 meters. Normally only 12 competitors are given spots in the final, but 13 went into Sunday’s final for both men and women.  

 Given a second chance, Williams did not let her chance go to waste. Luckily, she had previously already cleared the Olympic standard height of 4.73 meters, given her a crucial advantage from the start.  

After passing at the first height, she rattled off 5 clearances in a row of the next 5 heights, each completed on her first attempt at each height.   She cleared the Olympic Standard again to put herself in 1st with only three competitors remaining. After Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Katie Moon made three unsuccessful attempts at 4.83, and Brynn King completed her competition after 1 attempt at 4.78, Bridget kept 1st place by virtue of having the cleanest record of the entire field.  

She and Brynn King are both first time Olympians, and Moon will be participating in her 2nd. After a 9th place finish at the 2021 trials, 2024 ended in jubilation, as Bridget embraced her husband, former Cavalier thrower James Williams, in the stands of Hayward Field.