It is only up and up for pole vaulter Mire Reinstorf

Maties Sportswoman of the Year in 2022, the South African athlete and actuarial science student claimed gold at the All Africa Games in Accra, Ghana in 2023 and keeps aiming higher.

Although Mire Reinstorf dabbled in multiple sport disciplines, including hurdles and gymnastics, and initially shied away from trying another new one, when she eventually did try pole vault she “instantly loved it” – claiming she has not put the pole down since that day.

The 22 year-old Bcom Actuarial Science student insists that her training has only gotten better as the year has progressed. Reinstorf who has had a successful start to 2024, with additional gold medals at Athletics South Africa (ASA) U23 junior and senior championships as well as at University Sport South Africa (USSA) Track and Field championship says her technique has been “significantly improving”.

Her biggest takeaway from the many years of competing is “to be successful, it requires hard work”. 2023 was a difficult year for Reinstorf as some performances weren’t what she had envisioned but she did not let this get her down.

“I realised that success doesn’t come by itself. You have to put in and keep up the work and effort to reach your goals. Even if you are having bad days, because that is when you learn the most. To push through the bad sessions and know that everything will eventually come together,” Mire Reinstorf explained.

Although she narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Paris 2024, she vows to keep training in order to make it to the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028. The maximum height she has cleared is 4.35 and it is also her season’s best for 2024.

The pole vaulter also cites her parents, who gave her the opportunity to live her dreams, as her inspiration. “I am very thankful and blessed to have them in my life, because they are very supportive and if weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. They inspired me to work hard to become successful,” she says.

With the support of her loved ones, Reinstorf aims high and hopes to accomplish her ultimate goal which is to clear a height of 5 meters. “Only four female pole vaulter’s have ever cleared 5m, so it would be a very big accomplishment for me. In the meantime, I plan to keep bettering my heights and increasing my world ranking,” Reinstorf concluded.

Written by Kimara Singh