Stacy Dragila continues her farewell season at the Boston In

[rainbowgirl28]

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Stacy Dragila continues her farewell season at the Boston Indoor Games
Wed Feb 04, 2009 By Dave Ungrady / Universal Sports


By: Getty Images

Stacy Dragila is entering her final season


BOSTON, Mass. -- In 2004, her calves betrayed her. As 2005 became 2006, her right Achilles tendon slowly but surely mounted an insurrection. In 2007, her left Achilles insisted on storming what little remained of the fortress.

Finally, nothing could keep out the doubt.

"It wasn't so much my body last year," said Stacy Dragila on Tuesday, four days after a rejuvenating second-place finish at the 102nd Millrose Games that saw her jump higher (4.61 meters/15 feet, 1.5 inches) than she has indoors since 2004. "It was more my mind. I didn't have the confidence to go out there and be competitive. I was scared to do so many of the things I used to do without even a second thought."

Such as winning the first Olympic gold medal in the women's pole vault, in 2000, and being crowned outdoor world champion in 1999 and 2001. Such as earning 17 indoor and outdoor U.S. titles between 1996 and 2005, as well as setting American and world records on a routine basis.

Or, as on many days, just being able to plant the pole and take a jump in practice.

"For whatever reason, I was just broken," she said.

Shortly after eating a late breakfast on a snowy morning, Dragila chatted brightly in a stylishly hotel lobby in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood about her challenging last few years and being ready to compete in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Feb. 7.

She's still jumping well shy of her American indoor record of 4.81 meters (15 feet, 9.25 inches), but at least "it was fun to be in the air again, as simple as that is," she says. "Millrose put a smile on my face. I pulled a lot of things together for Millrose and remembered that this is how it used to be. It's been a long time since I went through all the poles in my bag."

Said Ty Sevin, who has coached Dragila since last fall: "I haven't looked forward to going to a meet in a long time as much as I looked forward to going to Millrose. I knew something special could happen."

Jenn Stuczynski, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist who has replaced Dragila as the queen of U.S. pole-vaulting, won the Millrose Games. She welcomed Dragila's return to high-level competition "It's good to have someone with that amount of experience in the field," she said today at a press conference in Boston to promote the meet Saturday. "It's good that she's back, and looking strong and vaulting well. It's great to have someone there pushing."

Dragila's fiancé, discus thrower Ian Waltz, helped bring her back to life as a pole-vaulter. Sevin has focused on both her runway rhythm and resolving what he called the internal conflict between what she knew she could do and what she was actually able to do. Sevin, a sports psychologist at the ARCO Olympic Training Center near San Diego where Dragila now trains, has helped her put things into proper perspective.

Other vaulters have offered advice. Fans have stuck by her. But perhaps most surprising, at least to Dragila, has been the support and patience of meet directors.

Dragila's results last season weren't the kind that made meet directors rush to return her calls. While Jenn Stuczyski's silver medals at the 2008 World Indoor Championships and the Olympics bookended a couple of American records, Dragila's no-height at Millrose was followed by mostly lackluster performances, including a seventh at the Olympic Trials and four more no-heights in Europe. Yet Dragila, well aware of the whispers in some quarters that she should hang it up, competed in 22 meets last year.

"If I hadn't been able to do those meets, I probably wouldn't have come back [this season]," she said. "They gave me time to get through my bad patches."

Mark Wetmore, meet director of four major meets in the United States, including Millrose and the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, offered Dragila praise. "Last year, Stacy in some ways received the benefits of what she'd given the sport in the past and the cooperation she's always shown to meets during her career," he said. "A meet director knows that if Stacy is still vaulting then there's something there, because she's not the type of athlete to just play out the string. As long as she's vaulting, she will always be welcome."

While Millrose put Dragila back in the mix, she's knows she's not the "it" girl of American vaulting anymore. That title belongs to Stuczynski, who took three tries at breaking Dragila's American indoor record after clinching Millrose last week with a jump of 4.71 meters (15 feet, 5.5 inches).

Stuczynski, who turns 27 on Thursday, burst on the scene as an unknown to win the U.S. indoor title in 2005 and has done little but soar ever since. In 2007 - with Dragila in the field in the adidas Track Classic, finishing sixth and jumping almost two feet lower - Stuczynski ended Dragila's 11-year reign as the American outdoor record-holder, and since then has amassed the top four American marks outdoors and become #2 all-time in the world. Dragila's personal best outdoors of 4.83 meters/15 feet, 10 inches still makes her the second-best American in history.

"To have Jenn out taking the pressure off me and just going out there and having fun and jumping with her, I think that's going to be a lot of fun if we can just keep this competitive thing going," she says. " I think it would help her to new heights and me as well. I'm always up for a challenge and it's always a good thing to be competing against the best. [But] it's not about beating Jenn; it's about being the best I can be. When I walked off after Millrose, if that had been my last meet, I would have been satisfied."

Dragila's last meet may not be far off. The vaulting icon says she will retire at the end of this season. That's largely why she decided to compete this season.

"It will be fun to end my career on my terms, rather than injuries taking me out of the sport," she said. "It's just time. I'm 37, (will be) 38 in March. It's time for a new chapter. I've been thinking of having kids for a long time. It's fun to be with someone I want to have kids with and just being happy as pie .... I look forward to being a cheerleader and a discus shagger."

At least one goal remains. "My coach really thinks I can jump the 5-meter mark (16 feet, 4.75 inches), which was my goal several years ago. That would be icing on the cake for me." It would also be three inches higher than Stuczynski's American outdoor record.

In Boston this weekend, given the vaulting results last weekend with Stuczynski missing an American record by a wobble and Olympic champion Steve Hooker taking his first shot at the world record, organizers are bringing the magic Millrose runway to Boston. It's the same runway on which Dragila set a world record in 2000.

At Millrose last week, Dragila said, there were no doubts.

"She may have to borrow a pole," her coach predicted.

[VaultNinja]

Great article. I hope Stacy keeps her head screwed on, and has some fun again finishing out a historic career.