IN SHORT:
For many years, the only high-level pole vaulter in Latvia was Mareks Arents, who has become a coach and passes on his knowledge to young aspirants. One of them is currently the best Latvian pole vaulter Kreiš, who won 4th place in the U-23 European Championship this summer, and also broke the more than 40-year-old Latvian U-23 record. The achieved personal record – 5.65 meters – was much more than he planned with his coach before the start of the season.
Born and raised in Riga, Kreišs moved from Ågenskalns to the Murjani Sports Gymnasium (MSG) in the eighth grade, where he first specialized in all-around, but soon focused only on pole vaulting. As a child, he tried various sports – basketball, floorball, cycling, he really liked skiing, as well as snowboarding, but after pole vaulting, extreme roller skating freestyle became his favorite sport, allowing him to perform various stunts.
The passion for skating cost a serious knee injury, and after the operation, the doctors said that the sport will have to end.
However, Walter did not give up and continues his way towards the top of the sport in pole vaulting. For now, he still gets on his skates, but doesn’t ride very aggressively anymore.
Walter describes himself as a person who lives today and is not particularly stubborn. While tending to stick to his own ideas, the pole vaulter listens to Arendt very much as an experienced coach, under whose leadership he progressed while already studying at MSG.
“I’m quite open, I like to try different things,” said Kreis. “I had dreadlocks, and now I started growing my hair to make new dreadlocks, which I really like. I still have the old dreadlocks at home, I take them out and look at them for a while, because I walked for a long time. This summer I tried new hairstyles, dyed my hair in different ways, which also it was interesting, but dreadlocks have stuck in my heart.”
Walter Kreis in 2022
Photo: Latvian Athletics Union
Walters has not experienced that dreadlocks interfered with jumping, although they reached almost to the navel and had to be tied in a tail or otherwise collected when starting. The coach encouraged him to cut off the dreadlocks, which the athlete did not agree to, because the hair flew over the crossbar just like a whip due to inertia.
Life on roller skates also encouraged Walter’s openness to a free lifestyle. He likes to stand out with tattoos, and the athlete prefers loose clothing, not even being able to imagine himself feeling comfortable in a tuxedo.
Kreis has also tried things in his life, which he does not want to remember now, because he has successfully overcome the bad activities.
“Right now I’m in the best physical and mental stage I’ve ever been in. I’m trying to grow, develop in sports, in general in life,” emphasized the 20-year-old pole vaulter.
Kreiš has been in athletics for seven years and believes that he is currently in the middle of his sports career after the big rise achieved in the summer. He hopes to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics and has already started preparing for the new season. Walter always tries to give 100 percent and knows that he can jump even higher. It also motivates to strive for higher results.
Kreiš considers breaking away from the ground to be the main thing in pole vaulting.
Further, the whole jump happens so fast that the height is even unnoticed, but the biggest fear for a beginner can be the run-up and the rebound, which is a particularly important element.
“If the bounce is a couple of feet too far from the required standard, the card can bend incorrectly and the inertia is completely different,” emphasized Kreis. “Then you can throw yourself back onto the track or just as well fall into the box, which is the most dangerous thing that can happen in pole vaulting.”
One of Kreis’s goals is to surpass coach Arend’s ability and jump 5.80 meters, which would give him a chance in the fight for a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
To qualify for the start in Paris with one jump, it must be at least 5.82 meters high, but the chance to be among the Olympians will also depend on the place in the world ranking, where rating points can be constantly accumulated with the results achieved in the competition.
“It’s absolutely doable. The main thing is not to get injured – that’s the number one obstacle,” Kreiš expressed his determination to qualify for the Olympic Games. “I think I will. It would be more accurate to say I will rather than maybe.”
Along with pole vaulting, Kreiš is studying at the Latvian Academy of Sports Pedagogy, so that he can later pass on his knowledge and experience.
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