‘She’s like good luck for me’: Bend pole vault athlete is chasing Olympic dream, with twin sister by her side

(Update: adding video, comments from twin sisters)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Qualifying for the Olympics is no easy task, but a former Bend Senior High student is determined to get there.

Sophie Gutermuth is working to make the 2024 Summer Olympics in pole vault, with her twin sister supporting her. 

Sophie and Nina Gutermuth were both pole vault athletes at Bend High, and Indiana university.

It's only Sophie competing now, but Nina still supports and is even a good luck charm for her sister.

This year, Sophie won her first-ever international pole vault competition in South Korea.

But she has even higher goals.

“So obviously getting to the Olympic trials and then at the trials the top three would go to the Olympics,” Sophie explained. “So my goal is jumping the world standard, and then making that top three.”

Her identical twin sister Nina did pole vault at the same schools, but had to leave the sport behind due to injury.

“Just being able to support her still makes me very happy to watch her and kind of vicariously live through her,” Nina said with a laugh. 

The two grew up in Bend, doing everything together, and constantly competing.

“Everything I’ve liked, she’s really liked. Everything she doesn’t like, I don’t like. So it's kind of just built in us,” Sophie said. 

Nina added, “It's fun to get to have someone to do everything with.”

They started track and field in eighth grade after a teacher convinced them to try it.

“We told her to never put us in a competition, because we thought we were so bad at this,” Nina said. “Then the first competition came around, and we ended up doing really really well in it, and we were like, 'Hey, maybe there’s something to this!'”

Now, Sophie is working to pole vault at the world standard, which is six inches higher than her personal best.

“Through the past 16 years I’ve been doing it, I've just been getting better and better and better, and closer to my goals,” Sophie said. “So for me, it's kind of like, I don’t really want to stop until I achieve my goal with it.”

She feels that with her sister by her side, anything is possible.

“A lot of the competitions that she’s at, I end up doing really well at, so I think she’s like good luck for me,” Sophie said. 

Both Sophie and Nina give a ton of credit to their high school coach, Fred Canfield, a former USA pole vaulting development Coach of the Year.

Canfield sadly passed away two years ago.

Sophie’s next competition is in Canada early next week.