Martha Mendenhall, subject of new profile, is proud grandma, too

World masters champion Martha Mendenhall shares two items — a recent profile in a local real estate magazine (see it here) and a 6-second video clip of her granddaughter Violet (not Victoria as I wrote earlier—my bad) jumping. Guess which one she’s most proud of. Martha writes: “I just HAD to send this to you because my granddaughter (who I am raising) loves high jumping as much as I do. I set up a pit in the house and she jumps and jumps. I’d say she is getting quite good.” The tot doesn’t go high, but form evokes the East European lead-arm-first style. So we’re only 33 years away from the first W85 and W35 grandmother-granddaughter WMA gold-medal pair in the high jump.

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January 17, 2011

15 Responses

  1. Tony Echeandia - January 17, 2011

    Very very cool Martha!!!

  2. Rob D'Avellar - January 17, 2011

    A future champ for sure! She’ll follow in some great footsteps. Interesting how American women are increasingly dominating Masters High Jump.

    Sacramento Worlds should be interesting. In addition to Martha, Kathy Bergen, Pat Porter, Kay Glynn, Rita Hanscom, Nadine O’Connor, and Phil Raschker are all capable of winning gold in the high jump.

    On the men’s side, I think, but not sure, that Bruce McBarnette and Karl Hawke were the only American men to win gold in Lahti.

  3. Liz Palmer - January 17, 2011

    Wonderful article and video Martha! Thanks for sharing!

  4. Weia Reinboud - January 17, 2011

    Very nice!! The rooms are high enough for years of improvement.

    @Rob A nice group of jumpers, but much depends on who is coming to join the competition, they are not all number 1’s: http://www.mastersathletics.net/fileadmin/html/Rankings/Rankings_2010/2010HighJumpw.html
    (I will not be there.)

  5. peter taylor - January 17, 2011

    Good list by Rob. Two others to think about for Sacramento worlds are Stacey Nieder, who broke Trish Porter’s American W40 indoor mark by soaring 1.67 meters at Boston nationals last Mark, and Kimiko “Kimmy” Nakatake.

    Kimmy, at age 37, tied Stacey at Spokane nationals in 2008 (both jumped 1.65) but has been hampered by injury recently.

    And congratulations to high jumper/sprinter Martha Mendenhall as well.

  6. peter taylor - January 17, 2011

    I meant last March, not last Mark. Must be the anesthesia.

  7. Sbemayne - January 17, 2011

    Martha that is too cute! I love the arm action…..

  8. Rob D'Avellar - January 17, 2011

    Yes, Peter, I forgot about Stacey. Kimmy is a great jumper too, but at Lahti, she competed for Japan when she got her Gold. Was thinking (perhaps too “patriotically”) about who could win High Jump Gold for the US in Sacramento. On the men’s side, not sure who beyond Hawke and McBarnette are possibilities.

    Sorry to see that Weia won’t be competing.

  9. leigh - January 17, 2011

    HEY VIOLET is Martha’s grandbaby’s name. Also known as LaLa to her close friends…

  10. Mary Harada - January 17, 2011

    I love the form -Martha – good for you for starting her early -what is next? Hurdles? And tot gymnastics would be a great way to get her ready for the pole vault. Great fun to watch.

  11. Ken Stone - January 17, 2011

    My bad on “Victoria,” which I also mistakenly placed in YouTube video. Now corrected to Violet in story.

  12. kevin morning - January 18, 2011

    Nice work, Martha. Proud of you.

  13. peter taylor - January 20, 2011

    Martha, that little Violet is some kind of high jumper. Wow. As for you, I hope you will be taking part in indoor nationals at Albuquerque. I have enjoyed announcing you since 1996 in Greensboro, NC.

    Right now we have only 6 women (USATF) entered in the high jump, while last year we had 21 pre-entrants. We still have 18 days, however, before the 2 PM deadline on February 7. After that there will be a very large penalty.

  14. herdlr - January 27, 2011

    Thanks everyone…@ Peter, I am working on getting to Albaquerque. You may see my name appear very soon. I hope.

  15. peter taylor - January 29, 2011

    OK, Martha, hope you can make it. Right now we are stuck at 9 pre-entrants for the women’s high jump in Albuquerque, with the deadline coming up quickly (Feb 7). I think we can double that, but why not try to match last year’s 21?

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