Jump Sam Jump. It’s a slogan plastered on store fronts, schools, tweets and Facebook statuses everywhere in Oxford. “Sam” is Sam Kendricks, an Oxford native and former Ole Miss track and field athlete. The “jump” is the Olympic pole vault in Rio, where the 23-year-old is favored to be the first American man since 2004 to medal in the event.
The story of Kendrick’s rise to world-class Olympic athlete is tightly intertwined with the Oxford and Ole Miss community. He opted not to train with the rest of Team USA in Houston, instead preparing at his old facilities at Oxford Middle School (“You go to all these places in the world,” Kendricks told The Clarion-Ledger.