When Kayla Caldwell ’13 qualified for the 2016 Olympic trials for pole vaulting at the KMS Invite in Birmingham, Alabama, on Jan. 31, she said she was angry.
“That day I felt like I was going to jump a personal best,” Caldwell said. “Then my calf cramped up, so I had to stop.”
An hour into her drive home, she said she realized she jumped the needed 14 feet, 5 inches, to meet the standards for Olympic qualification — her first time doing so this season, Caldwell said. Seeing posts from family and friends on her social media, Caldwell said it finally hit her that she was one step closer to accomplishing her dream.
“That’s when it was really exciting and kind of overwhelming,” Caldwell said.
She will attend the 2016 USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 11-12 in Portland, Oregon, in hopes of reaching a 15-foot personal best. On July 8, Caldwell will compete to place in the top 12 at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon. If she does so, she will participate in the July 10 finals. Those who place in the top three in the finals head to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2016 Olympic Games starting Aug. 5 with the Team USA.
Caldwell trains four to five hours a day, listening to her body as to when to push herself and when to rest. She also works as the head coach for a competitive gymnastics team.
Bell Athletics — owned by three-time Olympian Earl Bell in Jonesboro, Arkansas — has been Caldwell’s training ground since graduating from Hillsdale with physical education and sports studies degrees. She said she loves working with Bell.
“We get each other really well,” Caldwell said. “We don’t have to say much. Where I’m very high-strung, he’s very relaxed and calm, so when you’re at a meet, it keeps you calm and focused.”
Hillsdale College track and field head coach Andrew Towne said since her time at Hillsdale, Caldwell has been motivated.
“Whether things were going good or things were going bad, Kayla was always determined that she could do more,” Towne said. “That’s very uncommon, and I think that’s why she’s able to persevere to where she is.”
Caldwell competes, on average, two to three times per month nationally. She has traveled to South Korea twice and Vietnam once for meets, winning one time in both countries.
“It’s just awesome; you meet all these new people and have all these neat experiences,” Caldwell said, adding she ate an octopus after seeing it move around minutes before and visited a Buddhist temple.
Caldwell said she is hoping to do some more exploring soon — this time in Brazil.
Ever since she can remember, when someone asked Caldwell what she wanted to be when she grew up, she responded: an Olympian.
“I didn’t really have a job in mind like everybody else,” she said. “I just wanted to go to the Olympics.”
Caldwell said she can’t remember what inspired that dream, but she loved gymnastics as a child and enjoyed watching the competitions on television.
“I really wanted to be one of those people that people wanted to see and to win the Olympics and be called the best in the world at something,” Caldwell said. “That’s always been an amazing thought to me.”
During the eighth grade, Caldwell injured herself, which forced her to take a break from gymnastics. Her brother ran track, so she said she thought she would try it. She beat several records in sprint events.
“I thought, ‘I should do this again,’ because I got so much attention from it,” Caldwell said.
In high school, she ran track again, but once her coach learned she had done gymnastics, he suggested pole vaulting.
“It was a lot like gymnastics, so I thought it was a lot of fun,” Caldwell said.
As a freshman, Caldwell took second at the state championship in Ohio after only a few months of practicing.
“I said, ‘Okay, I’m good at this,’” Caldwell said.
Towne agreed — once he found out she pole vaulted. While recruiting her for sprinting, he called Caldwell multiple times during the evening — he knew when her gymnastics practice ended. She refused to pick up at first because she had full-tuition scholarships to NCAA Division I institutions.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, man, I don’t really want to go to Michigan,’” she said.
Towne promised to stop calling her, especially after learning she held the high school pole vaulting record in Ohio, if Caldwell visited Hillsdale once. She obliged. Her trip changed everything.
Not only did the athletic facilities impress Caldwell but the classes and students, too.
“I felt like I fit right in,” Caldwell said. “I was like, ‘These people are awesome! The students are so nice, and the professors are great.’ I loved all the people in the athletics building.”
At the end of the day, all Caldwell said she could do was sit down and think: “Oh my gosh, am I really going to go to this rinky-dink Division II school?”
After just one day of praying on it, Caldwell said, she felt God was pulling her to attend Hillsdale.
Throughout her college experience, Caldwell participated in many different track and field events, but as a senior, she started to focus on pole vaulting.
“She wasn’t really where she wanted to be at that stage in her career,” Towne said.
Nonetheless, her goal remained set on one day pole vaulting at the Olympics.
“You could tell with her she was very confident, very assertive, and that was something at the very least she was going to give her best effort to,” Towne said.
She traveled to Jonesboro to train with Bell at a pole vaulting camp four times throughout the year.
“She made some progress during her junior year but not as much as she would have liked,” Towne said. “We thought it was in her best interest in that particular case.”
After training with Bell, Caldwell’s jump increased from 13 feet, 4 inches, to 14 feet, 5 inches, which set a new NCAA Championships outdoor track and field pole vaulting record along with a competitor from Ashland University in 2013.
“I’m just really fortunate the Hillsdale College coaches were such good coaches because we would talk about what I learned at pole vault camp,” Caldwell said. “They helped me figure out pole vaulting.”
Hayden Park Fitness Director Bill Lundberg, who participated in the Olympic trials in 1976 and 1980, said he did not know of any Hillsdale alumni who have participated in the actual games before, though a few have competed in past trials.
Even if Caldwell doesn’t make it, however, she still has time. Many pole vaulters continue to compete into their mid-30s and some into their early 40s, she said.
“This definitely is not my only shot,” Caldwell said.
And Hillsdale will continue to cheer her on.
“We’re excited to see how things shake out,” Towne said. “She’s very well-positioned.”