The Mindset Behind the Medal: Sondre Guttormsen on Pain, Pressure, and Pole Vault Mastery
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.8 • 686 Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sondre Guttormsen not only cleared six meters, but he launched past expectations, limits, and borders, and is considered one of the best to ever do it in the world of pole vault.
He's a European champion, a two-time Olympian, a three-time NCAA champion, and one of the elite few in pole vault's six-meter club.
In 2023, he made history as the first-ever Norwegian to win the European Indoor Championships, clearing 5.80 m with zero misses. Two years later, he backed it up with a bronze medal at the 2025 European Indoors, going even higher at 5.90 m.
In the NCAA, he collected three titles (indoor champion in 2022 and 2023, and outdoor champ in 2022). In March 2023, he tied the collegiate indoor record at 6.00 m, joining the sport's most exclusive club.
He's competed on the biggest stage as well: a two-time Olympian, reaching the final in Paris 2024 and finishing 8th.
But that's just the surface.
He's been through his share of adversity on the way to the top. Fresh off that European gold, he flew 11,000 miles across time zones on no rest, and still tied the NCAA indoor record. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he suffered a quad injury during qualification, missing out on the final. Four years later, he came back stronger to make the final in Paris.
This is a front-row seat to one of the most relentless minds in track and field.
In today's conversation, Sondre walks me through his legendary career, the ups, downs, and everything in-between. Look, I know nothing about Pole Vaulting, so this was a masterclass in the sport from one of the best himself. Expect to learn all of the ins and outs of the sport and ways Sondre is trying to become one of the greatest to ever do it.
Tap into the Sondre Guttormsen Special.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, before we get in today's conversation, I want to share a little bit about |
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| 0:59.8 | conversation of the podcast today. That was Sandra Gooddormson today on the Running Effect podcast. |
| 1:09.3 | Rarely do I talk to Paul Vol vaulters, but it was an utter |
| 1:11.6 | honor to welcome on one of the greatest of our time, one of the greatest of our generation, because |
| 1:16.8 | he's a European champion, he's a two-time Olympian, a three-time NCAA champion, and one of the |
| 1:21.5 | elite few in the pole vault six meter club. I ask Sondre a lot of quote unquote stupid questions. If you are familiar with the |
| 1:29.0 | Polvo, I am not. So I asked him a lot of base questions around the event, the discipline itself, |
| 1:33.9 | as well as his journey in this board, his time in the NCAA, going to Princeton, handling |
| 1:38.1 | academics, as well as being one of the greatest to do it in the NCAA. And then the transition |
| 1:42.6 | from college to pro, having his dad as a coach and agent, |
... |
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