William Floyd, Pole Vaulting, University of Chicago

by LEXI FRIESEL

In seventh grade, senior William Floyd watched the Olympic pole vaulting competition on television for the first time. Next year, he will compete at the collegiate level as a pole vaulter at the

University of Chicago.

After initially seeing the sport televised, Floyd was determined to pursue it himself. However, he soon realized that learning the sport would be a more difficult task than he had anticipated. “I asked the Menlo middle school athletic department if I could pole vault, and they basically said no because I was in middle school,” Floyd said.

However, Menlo’s lack of a middle school program did not discourage his efforts. In eighth grade, he began pole vaulting for a club team at Sequoia High School, and he also joined Menlo’s track and field team as a runner that same year.

In high school, Floyd continued to be part of the school team, and this time he was able to compete as a pole vaulter. Yet his experience ended up being very different from his teammates. “I’ve always outsourced my pole vaulting training because Menlo School doesn’t really have a pole vaulting program,” Floyd said. “It’s almost like I am a part of two different teams: my pole vaulting team and the Menlo track team. I show up to Menlo practices a lot less than other track athletes.”

During his sophomore season, Floyd began attending invitationals alone and competing by himself. “My experience has definitely been a lot more solitary than it has for other people,” Floyd said. “The track meets that Menlo usually attends don’t have pole vaulting events.”

Despite often being separated from his teammates and coaches, Floyd still placed third in the Central Coast Section his sophomore year on top of winning a league title. Not only did he win the league the following year, but Floyd also competed in the Nike Outdoor Track and Field competition in Oregon.

The idea of being recruited came to Floyd through his experience training with other pole vaulters in Idaho. “The woman who runs the camps talked a lot about the recruiting process because, for her, it was the assumption that was the path for all the athletes attending,” Floyd said. “So, I started to pursue the process.”

Floyd will continue competing in the sport, at the DIII collegiate level at the University of Chicago. “The biggest thing I’m excited about is that the track team at UChicago is going to be more whole. Right now at Menlo, it’s fragmented in two different worlds, and I don’t have a lot of resources for pole vaulting.”

Floyd is also excited to pursue his academic goals at UChicago, with plans to major in Geophysics.