Katie Nageotte of the U.S. rallies to win gold in pole vault at the Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO — It was just after 6 a.m. on Thursday morning in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, when more than 100 of Katie Nageotte’s friends and family filed into Fat Little Buddies Tavern to watch the American pole vaulter compete in the Olympic finals. Some wore red, white and blue and watched televisions next to Genesee Beer and Ale signs. Others elbowed up to the bar, ate food and sipped on drinks.

Nageotte’s mother, Diane, sat among the patrons, under the Christmas lights hanging from the bar’s ceiling. She was hearing that there were 100 more people gathered at the nearby community center, too.

The bar was quiet as Nageotte failed to clear 4.50 meters on her first two jumps. “Everyone got pretty nervous,” Diane said, but she knew her 30-year-old daughter would endure. And she did, clearing 4.50 on her third jump, then 4.70, 4.80, 4.85 — and the bar back home got louder each time. Most everyone was standing and filming the bar’s televisions as she prepared to jump at 4.90, chanting Ka-tie, Ka-tie, Ka-tie! Then the place went quiet for a split-second as she launched into the air.

As Nageotte cleared the mark inside an empty National Stadium, she was already smiling as she descended to the mat. A world away, the bar “just erupted,” Diane said, and the party raged on into the late morning as Nageotte became the third American woman to win gold in pole vault.