About This Episode
Marissa Kalsey is a pole vaulter and Olympic hopeful who moved to Knoxville to train with world-class coaches. In this episode of ConnectTheKnox, we explore how living in a central southern location like Knoxville affects training for track and field athletes. Marissa also describes the risk involved in pole vaulting, and the intense qualifying process athletes like her go through to compete at the Olympics. Tune in to learn more about the track and field community in Knoxville, as well as Marissa’s favorite local hangouts.
Highlights
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:36 Marissa explains how she moved to Knoxville for Olympic pole vault training
- 02:04 Marissa describes what the Olympic training process looks like here in Knoxville for the pole vaulting program
- 05:30 How Knoxville differs from where Marissa grew up in Pennsylvania, and why our central location makes travel for fun and pole vault meets convenient
- 08:26 Julia asks the question on everyone’s mind: How heavy are pole vaulting poles?
- 10:24 The equipment used in pole vaulting and the potential for injury in the sport
- 14:55 Marissa explains the process of qualifying for the Olympics
- 17:31 Ad - Just Homes Group Realty Executives
- 18:14 How the pole vaulting and pro athlete community is growing in Knoxville
- 24:38 Marissa’s favorite spots around Knoxville, including Three Rivers Market, downtown restaurants, and more
- 26:06 How the ConnectTheKnox audience can support Marissa’s Olympic dreams
Transcript
Julia: Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s amazing guest is Marissa Kalsey. She’s right here in Knoxville, Tennessee and she is an Olympian-trained pole vaulter, Something you would not think of for Knoxville, Tennessee. Marissa, thank you so much for coming to be a guest on our show today. Tell us a little bit about you and how you ended up in Knoxville.
Marissa: Thanks for having me, Julia. So, I’m a pole vaulter training in hopes for the Olympics; I train full time. And I moved here to Knoxville about four years ago now, in 2017. And the prior coach that I had moved for, his name was Tim Mack and he was an Olympic gold medalist and that’s kind of what brought me to Knoxville.
Julia: Where did Tim get his—where was he?
Marissa: He was in Knoxville. He coached at UT for a little while—
Julia: Okay.
Marissa: —and then, now currently, I’m training with Mark Hollis, who is another world-class pole vaulter. And yeah, so I’ve been here for four years, training and working towards that goal.
Julia: Okay. So, does Knoxville have a pole vaulting team? Explain Knoxville’s pole vaulting family here. That is something that I was unaware of. I know that we have an outdoor track, which is when it’s hot outside, very popular. But we do not have an indoor track to train Olympians. How did you end up here? And how did Mark end up here?
And tell us a little bit about what that training entails, really, for you because I knew athletes in general train seven days a week, nearly 360 days a year. I’m sure that’s no different from you, but there is a big difference in a athlete and an Olympic-trained athlete. So, tell us about that process and how that works out in Knoxville.
Marissa: Yeah. So, I moved here when I knew that—I came in, let’s say it would have been college that I first came here to visit because I knew that Tim Mack had a group of elite athletes and a program where he had people come from wherever and train and work with him and get the opportunity to learn from him. And he was a very well-known pole vaulter. I’ve, you know, watched him on videos, and same with Mark, but Tim at the time was the one I knew. And Mark was training with him. He was actually still training when I moved here as, like, what I’m doing.
And so, I moved to work with Tim once I had a session with him and I came here to visit for a couple of weeks and really just tested it out and I loved it. And I ended up moving and staying here. And I realized what a big community it was. I met some of the other vaulters, some that graduated from UT Chase Brannon and Kelsey [Obie 00:03:05], and there was an entire group that was training to do what I wanted to do. And so, that’s kind of what convinced me to think, “Well, this is a perfect atmosphere to be able to do that and work towards that goal.”
Julia: Where do you all train? So, in my mind, okay, in my mind as I have gone to several UT track—I support all the UT athletics, so we go to the track needs. However, I would imagine in my head, kind of like the tennis facility at UT, that the ceiling to train indoors needs to be extremely tall and that you all are just—hoo—galavanting over [laugh] these—[unintelligible 00:03:45] like magical gazelles. It’s just—so where do you will train all year long? And what really physically and mentally does that look like?
Marissa: Yeah, we have multiple places we train. Now, since my coach is the coach at UT, we have the opportunity to be able to use their indoor facility and their outdoor facility. Prior to that, we were kind of hopping around looking for spots. Because you’re right, you have to have a high enough spot. We trained in [Deewan 00:04:18] there for a little while.
And then we trained in my coach's backyard. He has a pit, so we train there outdoors. Clearly it was not—it was a perfect situation for when it was warm, but whenever it was cold, we kind of pushed ourselves through the cold weather and just made it work for that year. But now we have the opportunity to have just a nice indoor and outdoor facility, and we train in the weight room as well over there.
And we also do gymnastics. I just got done with gymnastics here this morning. We do over at Gymtek, we do a lot of things that connect that, like, upside down and body awareness, those feelings that we have to feel in the pole vault. And it really has a very close connection. Actually, a lot of prior gymnasts are now pole vaulters. It’s a very—the sports are very linked.
Julia: That makes sense now that you said it. It’s not something I would have ever connected. And Knoxville—and this is something I know because the kids—Knoxville has a massive gymnast community.
Marissa: Mm-hm.
Julia: So, this makes so much more sense. So, where did you come from originally?
Marissa: So, I came from Pennsylvania—
Julia: [crosstalk 00:05:31].
Marissa: —before I moved here to train. Yep.
Julia: That is super interesting. So, what are the biggest differences between where you were and where you are now?
Marissa: Yeah. That’s a great question. I think, here there’s a lot more for me to do versus—I mean, I grew up in Pennsylvania about an hour south of Pittsburgh. So, it was a smaller town, whereas here, there’s a lot to do. And it’s a growing area and I love that about Knoxville.
I just feel like you know, all the breweries and all the restaurants that are coming about, there’s just more and more I feel like every year that I live here, I just keep finding more places that I’m like, “Oh, I want to try this place. I want to go here.” And so, I love that about here. I also love that it’s a very central location, which helps me for pole vaulting and also for fun and travel. Because Asheville is not far, Nashville is not far, Gatlinburg.
So, I’ve met friends or people, you know, traveling through there or just gone on a visit or a weekend trip. But it’s also a very central location because I’m traveling to a lot of meets. Sometimes over in Atlanta, sometimes—I mean, I’ve been kind of to every state, but it’s a location that’s not, you know, it’s not all the way on one side, but it just kind of gives me access to a lot of different areas. And being in the south, too, it helps weather-wise compared to up north. There’s a lot more opportunity, you know, in the outdoor season to have competitions that you can really go back to your long run and really feel like you’re competing at a high level. Because you need good conditions to do that.
Julia: You said, “Long run.” What is that?
Marissa: [laugh].
Julia: All right, we’re getting into the [unintelligible 00:07:17] now.
Marissa: Yep. We’re getting into the details of it, the specifics. It’s like… so you have your shorter run, which is kind of like a drill run, it’s your practice run, it’s a way to—you don’t have as much speed so you don’t necessarily get on your bigger poles, but you can work a lot and focus in on technique without the worry of having to have your step be perfect. Because your step has to be in the same place every time, or around the same place every time when you jump, for it to be a good jump. And so, it focuses it allows you to focus less on the run and more so on executing. And your long run is more of your competition run. But it’s a little bit more challenging. You have more speed, but it has to be a little more exact because you’re on bigger poles and you have more room for error in that amount of distance.
Julia: Interesting. All right. I’ve got some really technical questions that no one else is going to want to know about, but I am one of those people that this is a Connect the Knoxville podcast, but I want to know, how heavy is that pole? It looks massive.
Marissa: Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, like, I don’t know how to say pound-wise, I don’t know what it would be, but they’re not that heavy. But the bigger poles that you get to, the heavier they are. And they’re not labeled by weight of the pole. They’re labeled by weight of what it’s like necessarily saying you should be.
Julia: Kind of like a horse?
Marissa: Yeah.
Julia: If you weigh 200 pounds, you cannot be a jockey. This pole will not hold you.
Marissa: That’s exactly what they kind of go for, yeah. Like, I jump—I don’t necessarily weigh 150 pounds, but I jump on 150 or 155, sometimes a 160. But, you know, it’s kind of more of a gauge for especially the younger vaulter, when you’re, you know, when you’re in it at the start, it’s kind of a gauge for where you should be, which pole you should be jumping on. So, I don’t necessarily know how much the pole itself weighs. It’s pretty light until you get to—it gets heavier as you kind of get to your bigger poles.
But I mean, I will say when you’re carrying it, you just kind of have to carry it straight up and down because that allows you to, like, have all that weight just lightly, I guess it’s more in your hands. Whereas when you’re dropping it and if you can imagine, like, coming down, it’s really in this bottom hand and that’s where it gets heavy. But the whole point when is to just drop it quick and, like, let it fall as your arms are going up, and it feels a lot more weightless when you drop it correctly.
Julia: Okay. So, something I also did not know, and I’m just going to share this because I feel like I’m always the person in a classroom at the age of 41, learning, and I always ask the questions that I think people think about, but they don’t want to ask.
Marissa: Mm-hm.
Julia: So, I thought—in my head—for 40 years, that the pole that you—the thing you jumped over, was like a metal bar and that it was not flexible and it didn’t move, and that when you hit it and it bounced off that you all were taking major injury. Not that it’s not an injury, but in my mind, when I saw that happen on the Olympics and when our kids got into track and I actually saw it, I was like, “Oh, that moves.” Explain that process because I really thought this kid was floating at a track meet in Houston.
Marissa: That would be—that would actually be an entire other element. That would be kind of, I guess it would be kind of scary at times like you said. But I’m sure a lot of people think that because, you know, you don’t see it fall down every time; of course when you make it over, it stays up. But, yeah, it moves all different ways. It moves up and down, it moves, like, forward and backwards because—so those are called standards when it moves forwards and backwards.
It just depends on the person’s jump, and it depends on how high you’re jumping. Because typically, the higher you jump the standards—I mean, not always, but the standard sometimes move up. Whereas, you know, when you’re jumping at some of your lower heights, sometimes you have them back but as you get on stiffer poles, you need them up a little bit. So, you adjust it to your jump and you know yourself and you know when you clear a certain height, typically your standards need to be at a certain place. And then it also moves up and down as you compete.
Julia: In my head. I had imagined, like, what is that? In gymnastics where they’re on the balance beam [crosstalk 00:12:15]—
Marissa: Yes.
Julia: —like a brick and it doesn’t move, I had imagined that’s what—my whole life—that pole vaulters, God bless their hearts, were jumping and they were hitting this brick wall and they were getting, like, I could imagine bruises. I was like, “Oh, my God, this is terrible.” Come to find out it is still a bar, but it does move.
Marissa: Yeah, it drops right off. Especially, it depends which way you hit it. I mean, a lot of times if you come down on it, the you know, your body, your weight, kind of sometimes will keep it on sometimes it’ll hop up and down. And you sometimes scrape it on the way down. But it doesn’t—you know, again, it does fall off pretty easily. If you were a lot of times going over, if you kind of just hit it with your side or your legs, it’ll pop off there. But I can’t imagine. That would be a whole other element that would be terrifying.
Julia: [laugh]. To be honest, the relief I felt from years of watching Olympians, in my head, had thought when they were jumping the pole, that it was this metal bar. They were getting so injured in my head. I was like, “Oh, those poor people. Oh, God that looks—I hope they’re—like—”
Marissa: “They’re really going for it.”
Julia: —[crosstalk 00:13:24] ribs. I was, like, terrified. And then I saw it last year when the kids was at the pole vaulting championship in Houston, Texas, and I was like, “Oh.” That is a major relief of childhood worrying on the all these Olympians my whole life. So—
Marissa: That cracks me up [laugh].
Julia: And I thought of you immediately. I told Joe, it’s like, “You have to tell Marissa this because this is hilarious.”
Marissa: [laugh]. That is really funny.
Julia: Very good. It’s not a metal bar that’s causing back-breaking injuries, which is what my whole life I thought you were all going through. So, that is even—and in fact, two things went through my mind. I was like, okay, well, that’s not as injure-possibility as I thought it was going to be, but two, the skill level now that I know that thing is light and moves, I was like, “Oh, that’s even harder.” So, then I was like, “Oh, the skill to go across that,” and just the air, I bet the air that pushes across it could just push that thing right off. I thought, “Wow.” [laugh][unintelligible 00:14:25] to just see [unintelligible 00:14:27] on TV, you’re, like, this close from touching it, and I’m like—now I’m watching it like this [laugh].
Marissa: [laugh].
Julia: What are they doing? So, I’m so glad, just in case anybody else out there outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, wants to know, that’s what the pole does. And it moves and it’s safe and it’s okay. So [laugh].
Marissa: Yeah. That’s hilarious.
Julia: Always learning something here on Connect the Knox. Hey, where do you go—so as an Olympian, as and Olympia—you’re training for the Olympics and I believe you were this close last year. Tell us about that experience. And where all do you have to go to qualify? Tell us about that.
Because you know, when you have to qualify, let’s say, for the Boston Marathon, for example, you have to qualify in two or three different marathons throughout the country to be cleared for even applying for the Boston Marathon, let alone qualify for it. So, I would assume that sport is kind of the same. Where do you qualify? How do you qualify? What is that whole process?
Marissa: Yeah. You’re correct. There are multiple meets that you need to—in competitions—that you need to qualify for the Olympics. So, the first one would be a Olympic trials. So, that year that I was two inches, I was two inches from the Olympic trials, which, once I go to that meet, that’s where you qualify to go to the Olympics.
So, I had one more step in the process that I was a couple inches away from. So you, before—or to qualify for the Olympic trials, they take the top, it’s 18 to 24. It depends on the year, but I think that year, they were taking 24. And so, I was a couple spots away from—they take the top 24 in the US. And that goes to that group of people, women and men go to the Olympic trials, which is typically in Eugene, Oregon.
But every year, they have a competition that is the same—it has the same idea where they take the top vaulters in the US and you all go compete. But that year is the year that it’s the trials for the Olympics. It’s only, you know, every four years, of course. So like, this year, I’ll have that same USA Competition; there’s just no Olympics after that. You are trying to qualify for the top spot in the US, though.
Julia: Well, that helps I would say.
Marissa: So once—
Julia: Kind of helpful.
Marissa: Yeah. So, once you get there—right—and yeah, of course, once you get there, I mean, of course—there’s other competitions too. There’s world competitions and Diamond Leagues that you can qualify for, but the main one is, of course, the Olympics. So yeah, you go to the Olympic trials, you’re fighting for those top three spots at that meet. And the standard—the height that you need to get—both you have to have those in combination and then that will get you to the Olympics.
Julia: Gosh, that is intense.
Marissa: So, it’s a process, yeah.
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Julia: So, with UT getting a new track coach and so—and there’s oddly and amazingly so many of you that are athletes across—like, nationally recognized athletes moving here, how do you feel like that program is going to push you forward in the Knoxville market? Again, just it baffles my mind at how many people are located in Knoxville that have these amazing athletic capabilities, and compete all over the world. So again, connecting Knoxville to that, but how do you feel like the training here is going to add value? Like, what’s going to be that value-add that Knoxville is bringing?
Marissa: Well, I think that—I do think the sport is growing, which I love about it. I think, you know, there’s a lot of clubs that are, you know, trying to grow and build. And my coach Mark, he has a club, it’s called Full Vertical Elite and it’s at his house. And then he trains you know, with UT, with the school. And I think that has just been a huge help with having the facilities. Like I said, that’s such a key thing to be able to train and to train at the highest level.
And so, I think that in itself is just really huge. And getting… getting people interested in it and spreading the word, and honestly, before—I’ve talked to Joe about it, too—I think it would be such a great idea to maybe have an event here one day, you know, some type of meet to grow the sport and to spread awareness, you know, because it helps to have people interested in it and you know, the viewership. And that all, I think, adds to the ability that we have to be able to make it into a career. Because right now track and field doesn’t really have a professional league, you know? It’s either you’ve been to the Olympics and you’re competing in the Diamond League, or you’re trying to get there [laugh].
So, there’s really no in between. So yeah, I think those kinds of things help. And we have a lot of street meets throughout the year where we go and they set up a pit and a runway and in the middle of a street and people are watching from bars and restaurants—
Julia: We need to know where these are. It sounds like a video game… you remember—I don’t know if you remember this, I don’t know—back in the day, it was like the original Nintendo, there was like a street fight. It was like [singing]. But that’s exactly what I envisioned in my head just now, it’s like street meet.
Marissa: That’s [crosstalk 00:20:34] yeah. It is. They make it all fun. I mean at certain ones, if they do a really good job setting it up, there was one in Memphis this past year and it was so great. It was an American track league meet is what the people that set it up, that’s what they are.
And they covered it on ESPN2. And a lot of their meets are covered on there. And they had somebody announcing that was a pole vaulter that kind of knew how to explain to the crowd what was going on, which I think is huge, too. When you can really understand—
Julia: That’s important.
Marissa: Yeah.
Julia: We don’t know. We have no idea. We all we d—all I remember—I mean, all I did was live for the Olympics as a kid. So, I grew up my entire life, like, oh, it’s an Olympic year, we have to—we’re literally glued to the television watching all the Olympic sports. But understanding how they work and how they’re connected to the world and how that actually brings things.
So, let’s actually—I’ll tell you what, let’s do this. You get with your coaches, see what you want to do about the Knoxville event. I know that [Jonah 00:21:37] sponsor—the Tennessee legends football camp that comes every year here, we do a lot with the baseball team whenever they have, like, one-off kind of events that they do, and basically, what it is that the players do it themselves, post it up on social media, ask for sponsors, ask for stuff. Let’s get something together with UT. Let’s get some knowledge base about that.
Because the simple fact that you’re even here and now there’s three of you here who have been Olympian either qualifiers or trying to get to the Olympics, that level, that caliber of sportsmanship, and the fact that you’ve chosen Knoxville as your home—
Marissa: Right.
Julia: —to create this community is so refreshing and you’re bringing new things. And that’s one of the things that we usually talk about on this podcast is how do we create new things to keep younger people in Knoxville? You are trying to create something new. So, let’s get together and let’s see if we can sponsor something like that for you this year, this coming up year.
Marissa: That would be awesome.
Julia: Get [with your 00:22:32] track coach. We’ll help you out with that and we’ll, kind of like, air this closer to time to kind of get some sponsors for that together—
Marissa: That would be great.
Julia: —because I think that would be really cool if we could get ESPN2 to Knoxville. Because again, that promotes Knoxville as well, and you all as athletes. So, that’s a win-win, to connect Knoxville to the nation. So, that’s what you’re trying to accomplish and that is amazing for somebody so young and so talented to take that project on. And I think that your passion and your talent are going to be well paid for this situation that you’re going. So, we can do—we’ll do whatever we can to support you as you grow. We will have five minutes left. I’m so—
Marissa: Well—
Julia: I have been talking crazy about pole vaulting—it’s crazy.
Marissa: Well, thank you so much—
Julia: I love it. [crosstalk 00:23:17].
Marissa: —I just appreciate that you’re willing to help with that mission. Because it’s—
Julia: Absolutely.
Marissa: So needed, too, in this sport, kind of like I talked about earlier. It’s, you know, right, now I just I make it work. And we have some meets that we have, you know, a little bit of prize money for, but for the most part, you’re just moving forward with your dream and you’re hoping that, you know, you’re working part-time and working on the side doing other things just to make it work. Because I love it, you know, and I want to do it no matter what, but it would—in track and field it would really—it just really helps to feel like you have a career out of something, and you know?
Julia: Well, I will say back in 2003, when Joe and I both graduated college, that was the last time that I can remember the University of Tennessee track team being nationally recognized, like, actually having some national players. And we had an Olympian; I believe it was a hammer thrower. And that was it. And I was like, “Oh, okay. It is time.”
Because our football team is back on track, our basketball team is okay, our tennis team is killing it, our baseball team is killing it, our golf team is killing it, our soccer teams are killing it, our volleyball players are killing it. I’m like, “Time to bring back track.” Because track athletes come from all over the world to compete. And that brings attention to Knoxville, which is the whole point, so we can connect the right people to you and you can get connected to them. So, I’m going to shift focus for this last few minutes because I want to kind of get into, since you’ve been in Knoxville a very short amount of time, some of your favorite things about Knoxville. So, favorite restaurant, favorite place to just hang out, kind of just give us some of the things that you enjoy about the Knoxville area.
Marissa: Yeah, so I love—I have a—there’s Three Rivers Market right near my house. It’s like a grocery store that I don’t always go there for everything because it is it’s like a higher-end store, but I love that it has fresh everything. It’s very healthy. It kind of reminds me of a Trader Joe’s. So, I love that.
Restaurant-wise, anything downtown. Market Square Café 4 is kind of the one that I tend to take people to when they’re in town because we can sit outside under the lights and eat and I love that. Also, I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but it’s like a food truck park, which I think it’s called Central Filling Station. Yes, I love that.
Julia: Oh, my gosh. I remember when that was commercial real estate that nobody wanted.
Marissa: Oh, my goodness.
Julia: Years ago. Years, nobody would touch it. Nobody would go to that side of town, wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Now, it’s amazing. I’m so happy that you mentioned that.
Marissa: Yes. It has—I mean, it has all the different food trucks, so you have options. And then usually they have beer or drinks, and usually a dessert. They have everything all there. And I love it.
Julia: I hate to stop you there, but I’ve got to because I want to ask this question. How can people in Knoxville connect with you and help you in your endeavors in the future? So, tell us what we can do for you?
Marissa: Yeah, I think first of all, they could follow me on social media. So, Facebook. I’m on Facebook, marissakalsey, M-A-R-I-S-S-A-K-A-L-S-E-Y. Make sure you get the A in there [laugh]. And so yeah, you can follow me on Facebook, a lot of times. And Instagram, same name.
A lot of times I post, like, my meets on there, so that helps with, you know, they’re able to see, like, where to watch me or things like that because I’ll post if we’re going to be on ESPN2 or where we’ll be competing. That, and of course, coming out—if we were to have an event—coming out to support at that I think would be huge, especially I think, like, a downtown area would be perfect because people would be walking by and it catches people’s attention.
Julia: So, you’re on Facebook and did you say Instagram as well?
Marissa: Facebook and Instagram, yep.
Julia: Okay. And both of them are—
Marissa: Yep.
Julia: —marissakasley?
Marissa: Exactly.
Julia: Now, you said to say it, ‘Kelsey,’ but I’m going to say, because we’re in the South, that A is the perfect enu—so it’s Marissa ‘Kalsey.’
Marissa: [laugh].
Julia: —with the A. It fits perfectly. K-A-L-S-E-Y fits perfectly with the Tennessee accent. You are supposed to be here from birth—
Marissa: You are right.
Julia: —you just didn’t know it.
Marissa: It was meant to be.
Julia: You all need to follow Marissa Kalsey, and she is going to tell you where her next meet is going to be and we’re all going to show up and support her. Everybody, thank you so very much for tuning in to yet another amazing episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess, Julia Hurley, helping connect Knoxville to the nation. Marissa, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for sharing all the pole vaulting stories. Let’s stay in touch. And then make sure that you send us all of your pertinent links and we’ll add it to the podcast when it’s published.
Marissa: Thank you, Julia. Thanks for having me.
Julia: Thank you. Have a wonderful day.
Marissa: You too. Bye-bye.