A Pole Vault Star

In her sophomore year, she started to attend Newport Harbor High School and soon became the pole vaulting star. At the end of her 9th grade, this pole vault star won the CIF California State Championship. This was her first victory in her high school career and many breathtaking events were yet to come.

Heights Of Glory

She was reaching the peak with an incredible speed leaving people flabbergasted including her peers. After the massive victory in the sophomore year, she went ahead to create another record in her senior year with a height of  13 ft 53/4 equivalent to 4.11 m in 2007. She continued breaking the record in the following year when she was again recorded as the best vault by a 16-year-old American.

Popularity

With each record and championship, her popularity was increasing exponentially. But Allison did not let it get heavy on herself or on her performance. Though she had won and participated in numerous now, she used to be excited about every championship and never took it for granted. Her popularity was skyrocketing with every other championship.

Photos On The Wall

There wasn’t even one event when where she wasn’t photographed. She was vivacious and energetic and every photographer wanted to catch that spirit in their cameras. Even she didn’t shy away from being clicked starting from the initial days of her career and was now used to the fame and glory she was getting. But not every photograph turns out to be a good one, does it?

U-Turn

Life has a very absurd way of changing its course and introducing the unnecessary ups and downs in a person’s life. It just doesn’t spare anyone from its outbreak regardless of a person’s age or popularity. It was the end of 2005, Allison Stokke was already one of the highest pole vaulters in history and continued making more records when an incident happened which brought a U-Turn in her smooth life. What might have happened that had the potential to change her life?

An Unforeseen Event

While she was practicing in a session, another team member from the defending state was testing a pole she had never used before. Allison, on the other hand, wasn’t aware of the same and took off from the same pole and unfortunately wasn’t able to get high enough vault to land her on the landing field. That’s where her life took a steep U-turn.