Kentucky grad wins U.S. high jump at Olympic Trials but you might not see her in Paris.

Charity Hufnagel has a gold medal to cherish forever.

The question now is whether the recent University of Kentucky graduate can create a path to Paris.

Hufnagel, who graduated from UK last month after a decorated career as a heptathlete and high jumper for the Wildcats, won the gold medal in the high jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Monday.

Under normal circumstances, that victory would have automatically qualified Hufnagel for the USA team that will compete in the Summer Olympics in Paris July 26-Aug. 11.

These are not normal circumstances.

The reason? To gain access to the Olympics, every athlete has to meet a qualifying standard for their event. In the women’s high jump, that minimum bar is 6 feet, 5½ inches (or 1.97 meters).

Hufnagel won Monday’s competition with a leap of 6-4¼ (1.94 meters). Though that was Hufnagel’s career-best jump, it fell short of the Olympic standard.

For now, that means two women who finished behind Hufnagel on Monday, who both met the Olympic standard previously, will represent Team USA in Paris.

Those two athletes are University of Arkansas sophomore Rachel Glenn and defending U.S. champion Vashti Cunningham, who finished sixth in the Tokyo Olympics and has been a familiar figure in track and field circles for years as the daughter of retired NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham.

Glenn cleared 6-4¼ and Cunningham 6-3¼ in claiming silver and bronze, respectively, Monday. How big an upset was Hufnagel’s victory?

Cunningham had won 13 consecutive indoor and outdoor national championships in the high jump entering Monday’s competition.

Hufnagel’s only avenues to France would be to enter a meet elsewhere between now and Sunday and clear the qualifying height or hope she qualifies by moving up in the World Athletics rankings by July 7, which looks like a long shot.

Hufnagel was not surprised she won Monday but did not yet have a fix on her chances of getting into the Summer Games during her post-race interview.

“I have no idea. Hopefully I’ll know soon. But I’m enjoying the moment.”

After winning the gold medal Monday with five jumps of increasing heights with no misses, Hufnagel tried three times to clear the bar at the Olympic standard and missed all three times.

Originally from Rushville, Indiana, Hufnagel transferred to Kentucky from Ball State for her final college season after winning the NCAA Outdoors championship in the high jump in 2023. At UK this past season, she set the school record in the heptathlon and the outdoor high jump. She finished seventh in the heptathlon and 12^th in the high jump at this year’s NCAA Outdoors.

Hufnagel said focusing solely on the high jump and not having to worry about the heptathlon at the Olympic Trials was a difference-maker.

“Honestly, pretty amazing. I give absolutely all glory to God,” she said in reaction to the win. “ ... It was so amazing that I could come out here today and jump with these amazing jumpers, have fun with it and do what I know I can do and come up to this point with fresher legs than normal. I’m very appreciative.”

Hufnagel said no matter how things turn out, Monday will always be memorable.

“The crowd is amazing. I thought it was so fun to take it all in. I went up to my coach, he’s like, ‘All right, don’t think about the future. Stay in the present and just look around you.’ I said, ‘All right!’

“It’s a beautiful thing for sure. It’s not very common. Not everybody can say they competed in front of this big of a crowd, so I’m very blessed and thankful.”

Tuesday and Wednesday were scheduled off days at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials. Action resumes Thursday and continues through Sunday.

Former Wildcat Micaela Hazlewood-Lewis will compete in the women’s discus finals on Thursday after qualifying sixth on Monday. Former UK All-American Abby Steiner competes Thursday in the first round of the women’s 200 meters and ex-Cat and Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone begins competition in the women’s 400 hurdles.

▪ Yared Nuguse, a graduate of DuPont Manual High School in Louisville and an NCAA champion at Notre Dame, qualified for the Olympics in the 1,500 meters on Monday.

Nuguse covered the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 30.86 seconds, just a blink of an eye behind gold medal winner Cole Hocker, a former NCAA champion at Oregon, in 3:30.59.

‘I wanted to run the best race of my life.’ Former UK athlete qualifies for Olympics.

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