Tim Mack will miss indoor due to shoulder surgery

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plainde ... xml&coll=2

Mack stays golden while recovering
Friday, October 27, 2006
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist
Tim Mack's coach calls the pole vault "The Hit Pit."

Said Jim Bemiller, the Mansfield, Ohio, native who has been Mack's coach since Tim's undergraduate days at Tennessee: "If you are not prepared, it will chew you up and spit you out."

Life will take a piece of your heart, too, prepared or not.



Mack, 34, the 2004 Olympic pole vault champion, returned to his Knoxville, Tenn., home Thursday after successful arthroscopic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. The operation took place on Oct. 13. "It was Friday the 13th," Mack said, wryly.

The labrum is a ring of fibrous cartilage in the shoulder joint. Damage to it is one of the occupational hazards of pole vaulting. "It was pulled completely away from the bone. Your arm isn't meant to go that far back," said Mack, a right-hander, referring to the arm's position at takeoff.

The injury was aggravated by "shoulder shock," caused by "planting" (jamming) the pole in the vault box after sprinting down the runway. His shoulder had been bothering him as long ago as the Olympics in Athens, but he still became the sky's captain, setting an Olympic record.

Courage and toughness are necessities in the dangerous, difficult event. Some vaulters bear face and underarm scars after being hit by their own poles on their descent. In the Athens Olympics, Russia's Anastasiya Ivanova broke her leg in the women's qualifying and Pavel Gerasimov fell on his back from 18 feet, missing the landing pit in the men's final and withdrew.

Mack legs are in good shape, so he can do most of his conditioning as he points for Beijing. But vaulting must wait until the shoulder mends in six months.

Mack suffered a stress fracture in his foot at Malone College, which he first attended after St. Ignatius, and a groin pull that cost him the 1997 season, as well as a calf injury that hobbled him in 2005. But he has avoided the crash landings that can cause paralysis and even death.

While wounded this year, he managed to win in Zaragoza, Spain, where he went up like a flare on a jump of 18-10¼. Only four Americans jumped higher in 2006.

"The injury is a test of how much I love the sport," Mack said. "But I already know how much I love it. I'm going to have to reach deeper into myself to make the Olympic team. I will really have to sacrifice to get a medal."

Olympic athletes go for the gold. In Mack's case, two gold circles sum up his peak moments - the medal from Athens and a necklace his parents bought him in 2000 after he first jumped 19 feet.

Superstitiously, he would not wear a new necklace that was a gift for winning the gold medal. Mack did not want to change anything in his jump routine.

He was to come home in September for the christening of his nephew and god child, who was born July 3. It was a special moment for his brother Terry, his wife Angie, and Tim. How many children have a godfather who is an Olympic gold medalist?

Instead, he came back for the baby's funeral. Born prematurely, Tanner Joseph Mack died Sept. 22 of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

After the funeral, Mack started wearing his new necklace. He had placed the old one in the coffin, and it was buried with the baby.

[bjvando]

i have that same injury... I heard it takes a loong time to rully recover, if at all...

i'm sure there are some 'dr' like members here that could share more.. I'd love to hear more if someone knows.