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Mack never caught looking back

Bad breaks haven't slowed former UT pole vaulter

Lindsay Schnell, sports@knoxnews.com
Originally published 11:05 p.m., June 28, 2008
Updated 11:05 p.m., June 28, 2008


Cathy Clarke
Olympic gold medalist pole vaulter Tim Mack was honored prior to a Tennessee football game in 2004.

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EUGENE, Ore. - With all the injuries former Tennessee star Tim Mack has accumulated in the last few years, it would be understandable if every time he started down the pole vault runway, Mack got a little worried.

Not a chance.

Mack, the 2004 Olympic pole vault champion, says he spends no time stressing about what "might" happen every time he takes off. After all, that's no way to win an Olympic Trials title.

"Every day is different and you can't spend time worrying about that stuff," Mack said.

Mack will seek his second consecutive Olympic berth today when he competes in the finals of the pole vault at the Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. He cleared 18 feet, 1/2 inch Friday in the preliminaries to advance.

The best news for Mack might be this, though: after a few years of nagging injuries, he is finally healthy.

Following an injury-plagued 2005 season, Mack had arthroscopic surgery in October of 2006 to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, which had bothered him as far back as the 2004 Olympics.

"It was there in Athens but it wasn't too bad," Mack said. "But now I don't have to waste energy thinking about it."

Mack strained his left calf in 2005, too, forcing him to miss the entire indoor season.

But now, Mack is back to himself.

"I'm not 100 percent yet but I'm close to it," Mack said.

Part of that, according to coach Jim Bemiller, is the fact that Mack has gotten smarter the longer he's been competing.

"The second half of his career he's done a better job taking care of his body," said Bemiller, Mack's coach of 16 years. "He's done a great job with his nutrition and rehab and recovery. I think as far as being fit, he's in the best shape he ever has been in."

Mack says the injury was a result of repetitive stress on his shoulder more than anything.

"I don't think I was training too much," he said.

After the surgery in '06, Bemiller asked Mack if he was thinking about retiring. But Mack, ever the competitor, wasn't interested.

"As long as I'm improving, I want to stay," he told Bemiller.

In 2007, Mack cleared 19'2.75, his best height since Athens, when he set the Olympic record at 19'6.25.

"I think when he won the gold medal and set the Olympic record in 2004 it opened the eyes of a lot of young guys," Bemiller said. "(Tim) is not a physical freak. He trains hard and does things the right way and if you do that, you can jump high. You don't have to be some kind of monster."

Mack said after preliminaries he would spend Saturday lying low, getting mentally prepared for finals today.

"I'm not supersticous anymore," he said. "I'll just get a massage and go for a bike ride to stay loose."

Mack and Bemiller have talked about taking a certain attitude into today's competition, one that will push Mack to fight for first place, as opposed to being satisfied finishing top three and qualifying for Bejing.

"You can't go in there trying to get top three because you'll get in the top six (instead)," Bemiller said. "You have to figure out what it's going to take and try to win. You can't try to place third. That will blow up in your face."

Mack said he felt "good" about his performance Friday and is confident he's "peaking at the right time."

Mack's familiarity with the facilities - he finished third at the Pre Classic two weeks ago at Hayward, clearing 18-8 1/4 - also helps.

"There's a lot of history here and I've always felt good here," he said.

The track-savvy crowd at Hayward is known for giving some athletes a much-needed boost, and Mack believes their cheers could give him an edge.

"There are some crazy fans here and it helps you," he said. "If you want to perform better, (they) can give you a little lift."

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/0 ... vault.html

Still golden? Olympic pole-vault champ Mack eager to earn second Olympic berth in Trials
Posted by Tim Warsinskey twarsinskey@plaind.com June 25, 2008 18:42PM
Categories: Olympics

Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press
After recovering from shoulder surgery in 2006, Westlake's Tim Mack says he's ready to make a strong bid for another trip to the Olympics during Friday's Trials at Eugene, Ore.
Tim Mack says he hasn't felt this good since August 2004.
He was feeling pretty special then. Mack won the Olympic pole vault gold medal at the Athens Games in '04, setting an Olympic record (19-6 1/4).

"I'm as in control as I have been since 04," said Mack, a Westlake native and St. Ignatius grad.

That's good news for Mack because his results have been mixed the last three years, in part because of a shoulder injury. He hasn't been ranked higher than fifth in the U.S. in any season since the Olympics.

Mack's third-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic earlier this month served notice that he is very much in contention to make the Beijing-bound U.S. team at the Olympic Track and Field Trials. The pole vault prelims are Friday and the final is Sunday in Eugene, Ore.

The Prefontaine meet was at historic Hayward Field, the site of the Trials.

"It was kind of like a Trials practice and it went OK," Mack said. "I learned a few things. It's a different place because the weather is different almost every time you go there."
The top three vaulters will go to Beijing, provided they meet the Olympic standard, which the top 10 seeds already have done. Brad Walker, the 2007 world champion, is the top seed after breaking the American record at the Prefontaine, clearing 19-9 3/4. Mack is second with a qualifying height of 19-2 3/4 he achieved last year. Mack jumped 18-8 1/4 at the Prefontaine. Four others are seeded close behind Mack, including 40-year-old Jeff Hartwig at 19-2 1/4.

Mack predicted it will take a vault of 19-1 or better to make the team in good conditions, or 18-8 1/2 if the weather is sour.

"I expect nothing and prepare for everything, basically," he said.

That attitude has served him well since beginning his career at Malone College in 1992 as a relative unknown. He overcame a groin injury that wiped out his 1997 season early in his pro career. Mack said he has recovered from surgery to repair a torn labrum in October 2006. The dreaded injury to his right shoulder was from repeated jamming of the pole in the vault box that causes "shoulder shock," an occupational hazard. He said the labrum -- a ring of fibrous cartilage -- was torn completely away from the bone.

Mack said he didn't begin to feel recovered until this season, though pole vaulters never really get over that injury, especially at his age. He will be 36 in September and has no plans to retire, regardless of what happens in Eugene or Beijing.

"I never thought I'd be doing it this long, and who knows, maybe four years from now, I'll be saying the same thing," he said. "I'm actually as strong as I've ever been in my whole life, and there's no reason to for me to think that I can't do it another year or two or whatever."