TOKYO, Japan — Editor's note: Video in the player above features our interview with Nageotte before the Tokyo Olympics began.
Another Northeast Ohio native is taking center stage at the Tokyo Olympics this week.
30-year-old Katie Nageotte, a native of Olmsted Falls, is competing for a medal in the women's pole vault finals at the Tokyo Olympics. The competition will feature 15 total athletes, which is set for Thursday, Aug. 5 at 6:20 a.m. EST. You can watch Nageotte in the pole vault finals live HERE.
We will also be streaming her family's watch party live at 6 a.m. right here inside this story.
Her appearance in the finals comes after Nageotte qualified Monday morning following a rain delay in the competition.
This marks her Olympics debut after falling short of qualifying for the 2016 Games in Rio, placing fifth in the trials that year. In this year’s trials, she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with a career-best pole vault of 16 feet, 2 3/4 inches.
3News talked with her before the Tokyo Olympics began where Nageotte told us she will miss not having family present at the Games.
"My family was planning on coming, so that is going to be a bummer,” she said. “But when they announced that fans couldn't be in the stadium, I just said, 'Please don't come, it's not worth it.' I've always done better when family and friends have been there, but that's not to say I can't do well with them not being there. I know that they will be cheering me on. I've heard talks of maybe renting out a local bar in Olmsted Falls. I know that I have a pretty great support system and there'll be cheering me on regardless."
She graduated from Olmsted Falls High School in 2009 and Ashland University in 2013.
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Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated Olympics story regarding Chardon pole vault alternate Matt Ludwig.