She lost her eyesight as a baby in a car accident, when a pair of scissors swiped across the dashboard during the collision, causing the injury and limiting her depth perception for life.

She started her athletic career as a cross-country runner at age fourteen, until she was advised by her high school track coach Joe Fulton to try out for pole vault.

Shortly after the championships, Bartolina took a year off from pole vault, when she suffered a severe back injury from training at Texas A&M University.

[6] In 2008, she came out of recovery from injury, and competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, where she successfully cleared a height and set a personal best of 4.55 metres in the women's pole vault.

[3] At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Bartolina competed as a member of the U.S. track and field team in the women's pole vault, along with her teammates April Steiner Bennett, and Jennifer Stuczynski, who eventually won the silver medal in the final.