American pole vaulter Austin Miller chatted about his latest endeavors in athletics, including the Pole Vaulter’s Professional Network.
Miller won the bronze medal at the 2024 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships in the men’s the pole vault.
How did the pole vaulters professional network come about?
Admittedly, The Pole Vaulter’s Professional Network came about from my own need. I’ve started thinking of my pole vault career in terms of longevity the past couple years—how can I make sure my body can perform at a high level for years to come, how can I build my life outside of pole vault to make sure I’m able to compete as long as possible and eventually step away on my own terms?
The latter was the question that led me to reach out to my friend, Doug (Bubba) Sparks, a stalwart member of the pole vault community and an accomplished vaulter in his own right.
As a retired vaulter who’s done well in his years post-retirement, he seemed like the right person to call to about employment ideas that supported the extensive temporal and travel demands of a professional track and field career while maintaining room for growth at the end of one’s career, whenever that may be.
Our conversation highlighted a couple key points: One- the pole vault community is very tight knit and exceptionally supportive across all levels.
Second, many pole vaulters go on to do well for themselves after their competitive careers due to the innate problem solving, adaptability, and resiliency required to be a good pole vaulter.
Third, many post-collegiate, semi-professional, and professional pole vaulters experience stunted careers or early retirement because of financial strain and inability to properly build and progress through life while training and competing full time.
The goal of the Pole Vaulters’ Professional Network is to utilize the power of the pole
vault community to connect pole vaulters, both active and retired, with the intention of career advancement off the runway.
I believe connecting our community in this way can prolong some careers, connect diamond-in-the-rough employees with forward-thinking employers, and tap an often underutilized network of incredible people.
What inspires you each day as a pole vaulter?
The thing that inspires me, that gets me out of bed, each day a as pole vaulter is the opportunity to pursue individual greatness.
To take steps toward a grandiose, romanticized end goal or dream life that you may or may not actually achieve. And yes, I’m very aware of how cliche that sounds.
But once you’ve really given your all to something or devoted a chunk of your life to pursuing a passion and then received some sort of return on your temporal, energetic, and financial investment into that pursuit, its hard to not become at least a little bit addicted to that feeling and that process.
The thing is you start to see how that pouring of oneself into that building process without guarantee of the romanticized end result can be so applicable to many other pursuits in life, and that that end result that seems like a far off dream might not be so far off with patience and consistency. The tricky part then becomes balance.
What do you love most about the sport?
Community and entertainment. This sport’s community is unlike any other I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. It’s competitive but mutually uplifting. It’s like, “I hope you have a great day and jump really high, I just hope I jump a little higher.”
Pole vault also has a unique ability to entertain both viewers and participants unlike anything else in track and field.
What do your plans for the future include?
The near future is still very much dedicated to progressing my pole vault career. I had the best year of my career last year, but I know there’s so much room for improvement and I’m not satisfied in the slightest.
After pole vault though there’s so many other passions I’m excited to pour my energy into. I’d love to potentially coach in some fashion, at an international level for another country would be really cool, I’d also love to get into physiotherapy.
I’m really passionate about music as well and have worked as a music journalist so giving more energy to that has always been a post-pole vault dream. Oh, I also would love to explore public speaking.
Many people say life is short but I think the opposite, life is so long with so much time to do so many amazing things, and I feel pole vault has prepared me very well to pursue almost anything else in life.
How does it feel to be a pole vaulter in the digital age? (Now with streaming, technology, and social media being so prevalent)
I think it’s a blessing and a curse. Blessing in the sense that our ability to analyze video during practice and competition and access to various data points in training has never been better.
You can eliminate a much higher percentage of guessing these days which makes the path to progress more attainable.
It’s also a blessing because you can connect with and grow the fan base and potential sponsor reach much easier across all walks of life and skill levels.
It is a bit of a curse though because it does eliminate at least a little bit of the purity of the sport of track and field when it comes to acquiring sponsors.
You’d like to be rewarded strictly on the merits of your athletic performance, and that is still a big component, but I know successful, medal-winning athletes that have been denied sponsorship opportunities because of the vibe or appearance of their social media.
I think that kind of thing leads to some people giving up their authenticity to be more marketable which can be a real shame. Authenticity is relatable and helps people both directly and indirectly latch onto you and your story.
What is your advice for young and aspiring pole vaulters?
I think first and foremost would be to stay in touch with all the things in life that you love, that make your heart sing.
I don’t think I’d recommend anyone devote all their time and energy to pole vault unless they’re graduated and trying to be a professional, and even then it is so
important to have hobbies away from the track.
When you stay in touch with all those things along with pole vault, it keeps the vaulting fresh and fun. Second would be: Stop doing events longer than 800 meters (I might even say 400 meters).
I’m only half joking, but it in no way makes you better at pole vaulting to be good at running slower than full speed for long periods of time.
Third and final would be—if you really want to become one of the best vaulters in the world, or even just want to see how high you can really jump, fall in love with the process of getting better and problem solving.
Everyone’s potential is different but most people stop, before they find what they’re really capable of, and that applies to not just pole vault but life.
Progress toward your goals takes time, patience, resiliency, and consistency— speaking as a lifelong late bloomer here.
What does the word success mean to you?
To me success means accomplishing whatever you set out to do, which can be ever evolving and different for every person.
I think having a mix of relatively fixed attainable short term goals (example: I want to lift ten more pounds this than I did last week), long term limitless goals (example: I want to jump as high as I am physically capable) and everything in between gives us the opportunity to be regularly successful and still hungry in the context of a given pursuit.
What would you like to say to your fans?
Just the idea that I have fans, while still feeling very foreign to me, is unbelievably humbling. I guess I’d like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for filling me up with your support, and for vibing with me just being me.
One of the biggest blessings in me being a late bloomer in pole vault is that I’ve had the time to navigate and discover who I am, who I want to be as a person before getting to this point.
Because of that I feel I can comfortably bring this authentic joy and vulnerability that many people can relate to, and if some people have gravitated towards that that fills my heart.
What would you like to tell your fans about the pole vaulters professional network?
The pole vault community is unlike any other and its capacity to help and uplift is unmatched.
This network is here to connect pole vaulters from all walks of life so they can help each other succeed off the runway and land on their feet at any time throughout life. As the saying goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
To learn more about American pole vaulter Austin Miller, follow him on Instagram.
