Thrill-seeking instincts paved way to Olympics for KC-area pole vaulter KC Lightfoot

Even by the time KC Lightfoot was at the top of his kindergarten class, he figured, as the first kid who could write his given name on paper … and before he wondered why logos apparently in his honor were on signs all over our area, another essential part of his identity already was emerging: the daredevil, thrill-scanning component that left his mother, Kim, in what she calls constant “panic mode.”

He taught himself how to backflip on a trampoline when he was about 3 years old, for instance. Soon, he was performing jumps over his siblings in their backyard with that “stupid dirt bike,” Kim Lightfoot said, cringing as if it had just happened.

Then there was that time he pranked her by falling backwards off their deck into a pit mat she didn’t know he had stealthily put in place to catch him and left her “about passed out.”

To say nothing of the cliff diving to come, with assorted flourishes from as high as 90 feet. (“Thanks for bringing that up,” she said, shaking her head and laughing.)

“It’s like one of those things where you’ve got to know where you are in the air to not just absolutely belly flop,” Lightfoot said earlier this month with his parents alongside at his apartment in Lee’s Summit.

Through all this, Lightfoot also found a focal point to harness the energy and fearlessness and athleticism: the pole vault, in which his father, Anthony, was a two-time Missouri state high school champion.

“Just like him; we’re the same,” Anthony Lightfoot said, laughing, as he recalled jumping 14 feet back in the day.

His line evoked an inaudible wisecrack from the son, the Lee’s Summit native and Baylor University product who has become one of the most accomplished pole vaulters in the world.

In February, he set the NCAA Indoor Collegiate record (19 feet 8.25 inches) … and then eclipsed that honor by earning his way onto the U.S. Olympic team by finishing tied for second at the recent U.S. Track & Field Trials in Oregon.

(The pole vault competition begins with preliminary rounds at 7:40 p.m. Central time on Friday.)

The winner of the trials was another Kansas City-area phenomenon, Park Hill graduate Chris Nilsen, a friend and rival with whom Lightfoot has been competitively intersecting for some five years now. They at least go back to when Lightfoot, younger by two years at 21 now, had what Nilsen in Oregon playfully called “long, flowing Tarzan hair.”

Not to be outdone in the physical observations department, Lightfoot notes that the 6-foot-6, 215 pound Nilsen is about five inches and 50 pounds heavier than he is and joked that he probably could eat him.

Along the lines of that imposing presence, as a three-time NCAA champion (two outdoors), Nilsen often has occupied more of the spotlight than Lightfoot and was the subject of a substantial story in The Star two years ago.

But before he turned pro in April and forsook his last prospective NCAA outdoor championships, Lightfoot matched or surpassed Nilsen’s 2020 indoor record four times this year.

“He’s been telling me this entire time, ‘I’m figuring things out; I’m coming for you,’ ” Nilsen said after the meet in Oregon, according to TeamUSA.org.

Reflecting the camaraderie between them and, in fact, largely present among many field athletes, Nilsen said his response was, “You and me on the podium. I don’t care which order. Let’s do it.”

Indeed, they enjoy the association: The two hoped to room together in Tokyo only to have their requests overruled by a random assignment system. And asked if they might sort out some kind of handshake to show off their shared Kansas City roots, Lightfoot at least played along enough with the premise to say they might come up with one while they’re over there.

So it’s gratifying for Lightfoot to share in this with Nilsen and his other teammate, Sam Kendricks, a two-time world champion, and others such as his friend and competitive favorite Mondo Duplantis representing Sweden. And he revels in sharing this with the parents and siblings that nurtured the way.

But this also is very much a singular, signature achievement of Lightfoot’s lifetime. So much so that he expects to get the Olympic rings tattooed on his forearm in the weeks to come.

“I feel like it’s an earned thing,” he said. “It’s a tattoo most people just don’t get.”

And a path most people might not get, either. We’re just “smalltown,” Anthony Lightfoot said, recalling how they’d initially been afraid to even say hello to Olympians on campus at Baylor.

“It’s kind of surreal,” said Kim Lightfoot, who like her husband was clad in Team USA gear on this day.

It became real, though, starting with the innately dauntless mindset and athletic gifts that seemed to be catalyzed by such activities as the dirt biking and cliff diving. Worldathletics.org last year made a case that those two activities, as well as baseball, were fundamental in Lightfoot’s athletic trajectory.

And while Lightfoot wondered if some elements of the story were a reach, he agreed that all helped enhance the spatial awareness, body control, reflexes and hand-eye coordination so vital to the vaulting career — a career that he said started with “sure, I’ll give it a shot” and basically just snowballed to “here we are.”

(As he found himself thriving in pole vault by his early teens, Lightfoot stopped playing baseball — but he still figured the Royals might keep him on the mound after he threw out a first pitch to his sister, Carlie DiMarco, two weeks ago.)

Unflappable and confident in himself as he might be, though, Lightfoot understands the mental component is the ultimate X-factor at this stage.

“Pole vaulting can go wrong any time: beginning, middle or end,” he said. “It’s not just the coming down. Going up is harder. … If you’re not in the right mental space, and I’ve been in that position, pole vaulting is not your friend.”

In fact, that friend seemed to be shunning him as recently as entering the trials. Much as he might have seemed in a groove in Oregon, he said, “That’s what it looked like from the outside.”

“I wasn’t in the right mental space for about a month,” he said. “I was in one of those spots where I couldn’t plant the pole and had a mental block. It happens to the best of us.”

At a time when the mental health of athletes is all the more in the news with supreme gymnast Simone Biles withdrawing from some elements of the Olympics citing emotional well-being issues, it bears all the more mention that Lightfoot sought help through several sessions with Kansas City sports psychologist Andrew Jacobs.

Perhaps preferring some privacy when asked what he got out of that, he smiled and said, “I don’t really know. But it worked.”

So he figures the real pressure is behind him after navigating the trials to become an Olympian, something that should mean his name really is being celebrated around the area now.

Even though it’s a shame that because of pandemic protocols his family can’t go along with him for this part of the journey, his father is looking forward to agent/coach (and former Olympic pole vaulter) Jeff Hartwig sending videos after each jump.

And they were planning on having a large watch party for the event, something they’ll all be glued to even from afar … even if they’ll also all be on edge to see what his thrill-seeking will produce this time.