Vaulting’s old man gives trials a last go

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Vaulting’s old man gives trials a last go
BY BOB HOLT
Posted on Friday, June 27, 2008
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Jeff Hartwig used to get kidded by other pole vaulters on the pro circuit about his age.

Now those jokes about him being so old are, well, too old.

“Guys were giving me trouble three or four years ago,” Hartwig said. “It’s to the point now where they’re almost in disbelief.” Believe it or not, Hartwig is competing in his fifth United States Olympic Trials today in Eugene, Ore.

Make a movie about it and call him The 40-Year-Old Vaulter.

Hartwig, who graduated from Arkansas State and has lived and trained in Jonesboro since 1988, turned 40 on Sept. 25, 2007.

“I remember when I left the field in Sacramento after not making the team [at the 2004 trials ], I said, ‘Well, that was it. That was my last chance to ever make another Olympic team,’” Hartwig said. “By the time of the next trials I knew I’d be 40, so there was no way I’d still be jumping.

“ But here I am.” Earl Bell — the former world record-holder, NCAA champion for Arkansas State and threetime Olympian who retired from competition at age 36 — said he’s unaware of another American vaulter as old as Hartwig who has competed at the trials.

“We’re not talking about bowling here,” said Bell, who coaches Hartwig. “Pole vaulting is so demanding on your body, from your hands to your feet, and everything has to be done just right. You have to be fast, you have to be coordinated, and you have to be strong.

“ And Jeff is still doing this at 40 ? That’s crazy.” Hartwig, a former American record-holder with a career-best 19-9 / 4 in 2000, isn’t just holding on. In 2007 he was the U. S. Indoor champion (19-1 1 0 / 4 ), U. S. Outdoor runner-up (18-8 / 4 ) and ranked eighth in the world. This outdoor season he has a best of 18-9 in his quest to clear 19 feet for 12 of the past 13 years. “Jeff is doing something that never really has been done before, in terms of jumping this high for this long, and it’s pretty neat to be able to see it firsthand,” said Jeremy Scott, a former Arkansas vaulter who trains with Hartwig and is competing at the trials. “I think the main thing is he’s so smart with everything he does. “ He takes care of his body really well. He’s very smart with his training.... After years and years of doing this, he’s figured out what works best for him and he’s stuck with that plan.” Hartwig held the American record for eight 3 years, until Brad Walker, 27, went 19-9 / 4 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on June 8. Hartwig also competed at the meet and finished fourth, clearing 18-4 / 2 “Jeff Hartwig’s had it for a long time, and I really look up to him as an athlete,” Walker told the Eugene Register-Guard after setting the record. “He was really supportive, came up and gave me a really big hug and said it was some of the best jumps he’d ever seen me take.

“ He’s seen a lot, so that was a great compliment.” Hartwig said he was glad to watch Walker break his record in person rather than reading about it on the Internet.

“I like seeing him have success,” Hartwig said. “I know how hard he’s worked, and he’s a great guy.

“ As pole vaulters, I think we all feel like we’re competing against gravity. We’re competing against the crossbar as much as we are against each other.” Hartwig had a best of 14-6 at St. Charles (Mo. ) Howell High School and never cleared 18 feet at Florissant Valley (Mo. ) Community College or Arkansas State.

“He was not the guy that everyone said, ‘Wow, look out for him !’” Bell said. “Nobody looked at him and said he was going to be the American record holder. Nobody.

“ But he’s smart, he worked hard, he hung in there and it paid off for him.” Bell said Hartwig is “a problem-solving machine” when it comes to vaulting and a variety of other subjects.

“It’s not like he’s had one formula. Different things happen, and he’s been very smart about solving problems and keeping things in order,” Bell said. “When I’m doing things at the training center, or I’m working on my car, or I want to fix my welder, I’ll ask Jeff about it because he’s a very bright guy.” Hartwig, 6-3 and 190 pounds, said he never planned to be vaulting at 40 and that he will retire from the sport — whether or not he makes the U. S. Olympic team — when this outdoor season ends.

“I’ve been saying for six or seven years that I felt I was one major injury away from being finished, because as you get older things heal a little bit slower and you’re already slowing down,” he said. “But I’ve spent a lot of time getting therapy and visiting my chiropractor and taking care of little injuries before they become big injuries, and that’s helped me keep going.

“ I love the camaraderie between the other pole vaulters at the meets. I love the training. I love staying in shape. I love to travel.” So why stop vaulting when he’s still doing it so well ?

“If I thought I could continue to compete at the same level I am now, I’d do it until I was 50 and wouldn’t think twice about it because I enjoy every aspect of the sport that much,” Hartwig said. “But I don’t want to turn into an athlete who overstays his welcome.

“ I don’t want to be a guy that people look at and say, ‘Ooh, boy, that doesn’t look good.’” After he stops competing, Hartwig plans to return to his native St. Louis and possibly become a coach or agent for vaulters.

“If you need to figure out a problem you’re going through technically or with training, he’s one of the first guys you’d want to talk to because he’s been through it all,” Scott said. “He’s always willing to help. He wants to jump high, but he wants you to do well, too.” Hartwig has won a combined six U. S. titles — four Outdoor and two Indoor — but the trials have been trying. He has made only one Olympic team, in 1996, when he took second and then finished 11 th at the Olympics.

At the 2000 trials, Hartwig never even got in the air after his contact lenses became so dry he couldn’t see where he was going on the runway. In 2004, he simply had a bad day, no-heighting on three attempts, and in 1992 he wasn’t yet vaulting at a height that would allow him to make the U. S. team.

“The trials have really been a nightmare for Jeff, which is unfortunate,” said Bell, who competed in the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympics. “There’s so much weight put on that one meet, but I do think it’s the most fair way to select your team.

“ He’s just had some tough days at the wrong time.” Bell believes this weekend, with the pole vault qualifying today and final Sunday, is the right time for Hartwig to finish among the top three and make the U. S. team.

“I really think he’s going to do it,” Bell said. “And I think it would be the coolest thing ever, too.” Hartwig said he’ll likely have to clear 19 feet to be an Olympian for the second time.

“The No. 1 priority for me is to get to the final, then give it everything I’ve got and see what happens,” he said. “But it’s a no-lose situation for me.

“ If I make the team, it’s great. And if I don’t, I doubt anyone really expects a 40-year-old to make it.” Jeff Hartwig at a glance EVENT Pole vault AGE 40 (born Sept. 25, 1967 ) COLLEGE Arkansas State HIGH SCHOOL St. Charles (Mo. ) Howell CURRENT RESIDENCE Jonesboro CAREER HIGHLIGHTS Six-time U. S. champion, including four Outdoor titles (1998, 1999, 2002, 2003 ) and two Indoor titles (1999, 2007 ).... Cleared a career-best 19-9 1 / 4 in 2000 for an American record which stood for eight years.... 1996 Olympian, finished 11 th... Has cleared 19 feet in 11 of past 12 years.... 1999 World Indoor silver medalist. NOTEWORTHY Hartwig and his wife, Karol, raise boa constrictors and pythons for sale to pet stores.

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Olympics: Hartwig gives it one more shot
By Vahe Gregorian
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/27/2008

Feb. 24, 2007--Jeff Hartwig
(Michael Dwyer/AP)

ST. CHARLES

Nestled next door to his in-laws above the Katy Trail, Jeff Hartwig can feed wandering deer, watch eight adopted stray dogs roam and have his 3-year-old daughter, Heidi, regularly indulged by both sets of grandparents.

At home after more than 20 years in Arkansas, the next phase of his life with his wife, Karol, awaits as he sheds the skins that have marked him.

Though he still has his prized Dodge Viper, he has wriggled away from the snake-breeding and collecting that once left him with perhaps 300 at his house in Jonesboro, Ark.



"I didn't want to become so enslaved to those animals," said Hartwig, who now claims only about 20 being held by various friends as he makes the transition home. "So I just decided it was time to move on to other things."

Casually enough, the 40-year-old says the same about retiring from the pole vault at the end of this season.

Yet it will take a mighty leap to clear that bar, to surrender part of his identity as one of the best in the world and relinquish his springboard to a lifetime of adventure.

As he prepares for the U.S. Olympic track and field trials beginning today in Eugene, Ore., vaulting remains as thrilling to him as when he began as a 14-year-old at Francis Howell High.

Lugging his "17-foot suitcase," Hartwig still basks in the travel and camaraderie.

Seeing Brad Walker clear

19 feet 9¾ inches to break Hartwig's American record (19-9¼) at the recent Prefontaine Classic, Hartwig hugged Walker and spent that evening with him and other pole vaulters.

"It was better to have held it for 10 years and watch it get broken than never to have held it at all," said Hartwig, ranked second among American vaulters last year. "Plus, I was genuinely excited to see him have that kind of day."

And he's still genuinely excited each time he takes to the air.

"Every muscle in your body is tensed and flexed at the same time ... and yet when you find that good position as the pole starts to unbend all of a sudden your body feels weightless," said Hartwig, who still holds the U.S. Indoor record (19-9). "It's a feeling hardly anybody gets to experience, and there's no simulator."

A FLOP AT TRIALS

But the sport's pitfalls also have sustained him.

"Anyone who competes knows there is a price to pay for failure, but I think that it makes you stronger: I think I can handle anything now," Hartwig said. "The failures probably have provided motivation (to continue). I still feel like I have more to prove."

Nowhere more so than at the U.S. Olympic trials, where his last two appearances were marred by bizarre circumstances.

Four years after finishing 11th in the Atlanta Olympics, a month after breaking his own American record, Hartwig no-heighted in the 2000 trials after his depth perception suffered from contact lens problems in dry, dusty Sacramento, Calif.

Laser surgery mended that problem, though it didn't soothe his psyche. But after a "terrible year," Hartwig reasserted his way to a No. 1 world ranking in 2001 and had the third-best American jump (19-2¾) of the year days before the 2004 trials.

Unfathomably, he again no-heighted in Sacramento, his last jump shrouded in controversy. Feeling fatigue in his arms and flustered by the wind, Hartwig aborted his third run-up and switched to a lighter pole as time ran down.

As one official told him he had 12 seconds left, another waved a red flag and blocked the runway to tell him time had expired.

Hartwig was granted a provisional extra jump but failed to clear the bar set at just over 18 feet, irrelevant when his protest was denied.

"I thought maybe the Olympics are not meant to be for me," he said Tuesday. "I guess you can look at it one way, that it cost me a lot of money, it cost me a lot of fame, it cost me a lot of respect in certain people's eyes.

"But the reality is I still have my health, I still have my family, I still have pretty much all the things that are important in life. You have to keep things in perspective when you look at events like that."

Pausing and smiling, he added, "And yet there's nothing I want more."

ONE FINAL CHANCE

If Hartwig qualifies for the Beijing Games, he believes he can earn a medal.

"And if I win the gold medal," he said, smiling, "I may never pole vault again."

Short of that, his last competition will be Sept. 24 in Aacken, Germany, at a so-called street meet that may also herald part of his future.

One way or another, Hartwig will remain an ambassador for the sport. He is exploring setting up a local academy and will work to enhance exposure with more such street meets: pole vault-only competitions that he wants one day to conduct under the Arch and has jumped in on beaches, shopping malls and a bullfighting arena.

When he competes in the "Blastoff" street meet July 5 on the St. Charles riverfront, he hopes it will be as a two-time Olympian.

But he knows he needn't have that in his profile to have honored the sport whose highest profile is the Olympics but encompasses so much more.

"I've lived and breathed it for my whole life. I've never cheated in the sport, and I never gave less than 100 percent of my best effort," he said. "There were days that wasn't good enough, and I'm OK with that. If it's not (good enough this time), I feel I've gotten my opportunity and what happens, happens."

And other things await.