Charity Hufnagel, a Kentucky graduate and the reigning U.S. women's high jump champion with a lifetime-best 6-4.25 (1.94m) clearance June 24 at the Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field in Oregon, joins DyeStat editor Erik Boal to discuss not being selected among the 120 athletes on the national team roster for the Americans to compete in Paris after ranking outside of the top 32 global competitors by World Athletics. Hufnagel, 23, who captured the NCAA Division 1 outdoor high jump title last year representing Ball State with a 6-4 (1.93m) clearance at the championship meet in Austin, Texas, was unable to achieve the Olympic standard of 6-5.50 (1.97m) during the past year and couldn't accumulate enough points to elevate high enough in the World Athletics rankings to earn her first Olympic berth. She reflects on suffering a foot injury at the start of the year and the challenges of recovery and rehabilitation in an effort to qualify to compete at the Division 1 indoor championship meet in March. Hufnagel expresses gratitude for the training staff at Kentucky, along with her coaches, family, friends, teammates and husband Noah for their support throughout the year, especially Wildcats jumps and multis coach Kris Grimes for his patience, guidance and mentorship, as well as the leadership of head coach Lonnie Greene. She also highlights how significant a role her faith played in helping Hufnagel continue to trust the process and remain strong in her belief that she could compete at the Division 1 outdoor final and the Olympic Team Trials in June at Hayward Field. Hufnagel explains how meaningful it was to compete with 14-time U.S. women's high jump champion Vashti Cunningham, and how profound the achievement was to be able to halt her run of 13 consecutive indoor and outdoor national titles, with the last setback coming at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field. She also shares how special it was to compete unattached June 27 at the Jamaican Championships in Kingston, clearing 6-2.25 (1.89m) in a competition that also featured Texas A&M graduate, former NCAA champion and Olympian Lamara Distin. Hufnagel also discusses the unexpected support she received from the Jamaican fans and officials, in addition to how inspiring it was to witness the amount of appreciation and respect received by Distin in her home country. She examines how exciting it will be to watch NCAA peers Rachel Glenn (Arkansas/United States), Elena Kulichenko (Georgia/Cyprus), Rose Yeboah (Illinois/Ghana), Temitope Adeshina (Texas Tech/Nigeria) and Distin all competing Aug. 2 in Olympic women's jump qualifying in Paris, with the final scheduled for Aug. 4.