Dragila Article

[rainbowgirl28]

Mel Mueller a Canadian? LOL Nice article though, and click on the link to see the picture of Stacy skying a bar at her last meet.

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_i ... ryID=80531

Dragila's strength



By ED ODEVEN
Sun Sports Staff
01/18/2004

Stacy Dragila refuses to believe she can't do something. When she first took up pole vaulting as a hobby a decade ago, it was a diversion for her and some Idaho State female teammates, something to do when they weren't training for the heptathlon.

Though she quickly developed a fondness and passion for the sport, Dragila heard the discouraging voices; men told her women don't have the upper-body strength to be successful pole vaulters.

Boy, how she's proved them wrong. Dragila rapidly developed into an elite-level competitor, one who has shattered the world record many a time.

Saturday, Dragila showcased that world-class form while winning the women's pole vault competition at the Springco NAU Invitational at the Skydome. She vaulted 15 feet, 5 inches, a scant few inches shy of her American indoor record of 15-8.25.

Much to the delight of the crowd, Dragila attempted to set a world record at 15-10. But she failed to clear the bar on three attempts. (Others have attempted similar feats in Flagstaff: On Feb. 9, 2002, Canadian Mel Mueller attempted to surpass the then-world indoor record of 15-5 at the Mountain T's Invitational at the Skydome.)

"You have to be patient," the 32-year-old Dragila said. "It's a long year. It wasn't about coming up here and breaking a world record; it was about coming up here and executing the things I've been working on in practice."

Indeed, those are the words of a perfectionist.

Dragila, who moved from Pocatello, Idaho, to Paradise Valley last spring to train on a full-time basis in a warmer climate, has a name synonymous with astounding athletic accomplishment, especially historic achievements. Consider:

* She won the first-ever women's world indoor pole vault competition in 1997.

* Two years later, she won the first-ever women's outdoor pole vault title at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Seville, Spain.

* And she won the inaugural women's pole vault competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

"What an awesome experience," a smiling Dragila said, about what it was like to win the gold medal in Australia. "To be on the podium and know I was the first one to receive a gold medal for the women's pole vault, I didn't want to get off the podium. Everyone was screaming and yelling and I'm like, 'This is my moment. This is it. This is what I've worked my last eight years to achieve -- this medal.'

"It was just so much fun."

RISE TO STARDOM

Don't think, not even for a second, that Dragila was immediately a superstar vaulter.

There was a King Kong-sized detail -- fear of heights -- that was a major stumbling block in the early days.






"The first couple trillion times trying to go over the bar were frightening for me," recalled Dragila, whose outdoor personal record (15-8) is second all-time behind Russian Yelena Isinbayeva's 15-9. "I was terrified to go upside down."

So what was the phobia-buster for her?

Well, she began training in gymnastics at a gym near the Pocatello campus, where the wife of her ISU coach Dave Nielsen served as a coach.

"I think that really helped me become comfortable upside down on the pole," Dragila said. "It just gave me a lot of upper-body strength that I didn't have."

Nowadays, gymnastics are an integral part of Dragila's weekly workout routine -- doing handstands and the use of high bars, rings, etc. all help her maintain her strength. Usually, Mondays and Wednesdays are "jump days," with the focus being pole vaulting. Tuesdays are her "multi-event days," when she incorporates long jumps and hurdles into her workout. Thursdays are generally reserved for jogging, stretching and going to a gymnastics club.

Dragila is considered America's fastest female pole vaulter, and as she dashes down the runway, you notice her graceful, explosive stride.

Speed helps, she said, but it's not the most important thing.

"It's not necessarily about being fast," Dragila explained. "It's about being consistent, and being able to maintain that speed. If you're just fast and you can't put up a jump, it's like (sprinter) Marion Jones -- she struggles so hard with the long jump. She's so fast, but if she can't set up a jump, she's really going to struggle in the long jump."

Over the next several months, Dragila will work on fine-tuning her technique in preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Up next for her is the Boise Invitational on Saturday, followed by the Boston Indoor Games Jan. 31. Then it's the prestigious Millrose Games Feb. 6 in New York City.

Last year, Dragila hired a new coach, Greg Hull, who also instructs Arizona native and reigning men's Olympic gold medalist Nick Hysong. She said the change will be beneficial in the long run.

"I just have to be patient and I know that the heights will come," Dragila said. "I'm really excited. I'm healthy. I'm putting my technique together.

"I think it's really going to help me get to the next heights that I want to see," she added. "I think we'd like to start off with 16 feet, and then anything after that is always a special place to go. The ultimate goal is 17 feet out there for me. I'll just keep chipping away at it, it's like climbing a mountain."

LIVING LEGEND

Though Dragila didn't start pole vaulting until she was 23, she hasn't wasted any time securing her place in the annals of American sports history.

Even so, Dragila dismissed the notion that she's a pioneer.

"I think when I retire I'll recognize the things I've done for the sport or the things that I've accomplished," she said. "But right now, like anybody else who has goals, my focus is this: to work on my technique, make it back to the Olympics and go for another gold medal. And after that, maybe I'll sit down and go, 'Wow, it's been a long time. What have I accomplished?' It's been fun but I try not to think about those things."

There's plenty of time for Dragila's contemporaries to ponder such thoughts.

Just ask April Steiner, who trains with Dragila in Paradise Valley.

"She's a great ambassador for our sport. Everybody loves her," said Steiner, a Mesa native. "She just never stops. She's always pushing it. The girls have been chasing her for the last five years; it's always out of reach. We just can't get her."


Readers can reach Ed at 556-2251 or by e-mail at eodeven@azdailysun.co

[VaultNinja]

This is a good article. It is also good to see that Stacy is jumping at big heights again. I am excited to watch her in Boise this weekend. They have a facility similar to Arkansas and a fast runway.

[Erica]

Stacy has a great nike ad on the back of "Shape" magazine this month. Check it out, she looks like a nike model.

[vaulterpunk]

That add on the back of shape is funny because it is a total a** shot.

[rainbowgirl28]

This is a GREAT article... and holy cow this picture needs to be made into a poster! Great pics at the end of the article too.




http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 6247c.html

Re-learning to fly



Stacy Dragila moved from Idaho to Arizona, gained trust in her new coach, and is aiming to successfully defend her Olympic pole vault title



By John Schumacher -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, February 8, 2004


PHOENIX -- She emerges from the equipment shed carrying poles and a smile, checks the wind to choose a pit and starts drawing blue lines on the side of the runway.

And then Stacy Dragila tries to trust, putting her health and future in the hands of a cookie-munching, Gatorade-drinking coach with a sling on his arm and a sense of calm in his soul.

After several vaults on this cool, mild January day, an energetic Dragila bounds down the runway in her black shorts and shirt, plants her pole and soars over the bar before finally telling Greg Hull what he wants to hear.

"I feel better at takeoff," she says. "More comfortable."



For Dragila, the defending Olympic pole-vault gold medalist from Auburn, the road to Athens starts here, at an out-of-the-way community college track with brown grass and few distractions, save the occasional golf ball that comes sailing over a nearby fence.

It continues several miles away at a gym, where barbells produce groans and grimaces -- "I've got one more set to do? How come? I'm older?" -- and across town at a gymnastics center, where Dragila bounds down a runway, leaps and playfully disappears into a sea of green and red foam rubber cubes.

"Whew," she says with a huge grin. "That's fun."

Consider all this a far cry from where she started her Olympic push four years ago, in the chill and ice of Pocatello, Idaho. But time brings change, and if you don't act, someone else will.

And Stacy Dragila isn't about to yield her perch atop the women's pole-vault world without a fight. Not now, with most likely her last Olympics coming clearly into view.

So she switched coaches and cities last April, embracing a new way of doing things in her quest to hold a trio of young Russians at bay and soar even higher than she did in Sydney, Australia.

"I'd been so successful, but I really felt like Greg and I were going to be breaking some new ground," she says.

Watch the 5-foot-7, 140-pound Dragila laugh with her five pole-vault training partners -- Arkansas graduate April Steiner and four men, including Sydney gold medalist Nick Hysong -- and you might think charting a new course to Athens has gone as smoothly as one of her record-setting vaults.

And you'd be wrong.





The frustration last August nearly drove Dragila to permanently park her poles in a storage shed, retreat to Auburn and savor the gold medal she already has.

She'd just finished a disappointing fourth in the World Championships near Paris with an anemic 14-foot, 11-inch effort, well off her best of 15-9 1/4 from 2001, which would have won.

So the former goat-roper, Placer High School hurdler, and Yuba College heptathlete began to doubt the move she and husband Brent made here, leaving longtime coach Dave Nielsen for Hull and taking a different technical approach to something she could practically do in her sleep.

Trust? Not then.

"I walked away from the World Championships like, Oh, my gosh, if this is how it's going to go, I'm going to have to hang this up," Dragila says. "I had a hard time telling Brent that ... I'm like, God, I don't know.

"I kind of panicked. ... I kind of said, Screw it. Screw what Greg has to say. I'm going to do what Dave wants me to do. It worked for me then. And I couldn't do it. So I knew that something was changing."

After some soul searching, exit panic, enter trust.

"I've bought into it now," she says. "The trust is growing every day that we train together."

Hull, a 53-year-old former Arizona State pole vaulter who's coached vaulters for 30 years, relies on an easygoing but direct demeanor that pulls no punches.

When Dragila first arrived in the desert last April, he told her she might not be ready for Worlds that August.

"But I said for Athens, we would be," he says.

Which gives them six months, and five until the Olympic Trials in Sacramento, to put Stacy Dragila back together again.

She owns the gold medal, but Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva holds the world record of 15-9 3/4, just ahead of Dragila's 15-9 1/4 best. And the latest world rankings list Russians Svetlana Feofanova, 23, Isinbayeva, 21, and Tatyana Polnova, 24, 1-2-3, with Dragila fourth.

"She's ready to jump so high," says Hull, who rates Dragila's trust level at an 8 in practice and a 6 or 7 in competition. "She's just got to believe that's the right way to do it."

After clearing 15-5 in Reno last month and 15-5 1/2 three weeks ago in Flagstaff, Ariz., Dragila says, "It's just kind of fun to know that I'm back on the competitive tier."

Those blue lines Dragila marks on the runway, to represent takeoff points, lead to Athens. The idea is to leave the ground farther away from the box where she plants her pole; she's already gone from 10 1/2 feet to between 11-3 and 11-6, with 12 feet Hull's ultimate goal.

Now vaulting on a 14-foot pole, she hopes to work her way back to a 14-7 pole by the outdoor season. She's already holding her hands higher, another change that should help lead to 16-foot jumps, says Hull.

"Why did Tiger Woods decide to revamp his swing? Because he wanted to take it to another level," says Hull, whose sling comes courtesy of a skiing mishap.

"Right now ... she's only comfortable with the 3-wood. We've got to get the big dog (driver) out. And when we do, watch out."

Dragila trusts she won't wind up landing somewhere other than in the pit.

"I don't like to take huge risks," she says. "This is fun for me. But this is not life and death for me, either."





She cruises around town in her silver Pontiac Grand Prix with the license plate, "VALTDVA," but draws little attention. And she can sit in an Applebee's talking about her gold medal without drawing a second look.

In Pocatello, everyone knew Stacy Dragila. In Phoenix, she blends in to an athletic landscape that includes Randy Johnson, Emmitt Smith and Shawn Marion.

"The people were so nice in Pocatello; in a way it almost got to be a detriment," Brent Dragila says. "She couldn't just go clothes shopping and mind her own business."

As soon as Dragila stepped off the plane in Phoenix last year for a one-month workout session with Hull, she knew she needed to train here.

But she waited a month before calling Nielsen, the coach who transformed her from a heptathlete to a pole vaulter during her Idaho State days, to break the news.

"That was really hard for me to call him and tell him because of all the stuff we've been through," she says.

Nielsen struggled with it, too.

"I didn't attack this as aggressively as Greg has," he says. "We were getting good results in another way. I have a tough time teaching this particular thing, but (Greg's) been doing an awesome job. It's been a tough deal. I sure wish her well."

Instead of vaulting indoors much of the time, Dragila can jump outdoors regularly in Phoenix. And that sometimes treacherous 2 1/2 -hour drive from Pocatello to Salt Lake City has been replaced by a calm, 20-minute jaunt to the airport.

"I'm over in Europe in 11 hours compared to 15, 20 hours," she says. "Things like that add up."





Stacy Mikaelsen thought wrestler Brent Dragila was pretty cute when she was a "mat maid" at Placer High, keeping score in meets.

But at 5-4, he was too short for a girl already 5-7.

"I'm like, I'm not dating a guy that's shorter than me," she recalls. "So we became awesome friends through that."

Stacy headed off to Yuba College and Brent to the Middle East before the first Gulf War. Stacy started writing to him, and when Brent came home for Christmas, he brought a pleasant surprise: height.

"I'm like, Hey, babe," she says. "So we started dating then."

By the following Christmas, they were engaged. And by the next summer, Team Dragila was officially off and running.

Four years ago, they lived in a Pocatello duplex. Now, Brent, Stacy and their two dogs -- Sydney, a chocolate Labrador retriever-Shar-Pei mix; and Athens, a black lab -- reside in a four-bedroom, two-bath Spanish-style stucco home with a pool at the base of Lookout Mountain.

Brent, the introvert, helps manage Stacy's business affairs and travels with her when she's competing.

Stacy, the extrovert, engages the world at every turn, whether it's playing with a little boy at a gymnastics workout, helping a teenage girl at her weightlifting session or racing across town at rush hour to climb onto jagged rocks, pole in hand, to pose for a sunset photograph.

"She doesn't always really need to be out in the public, but she does well when she is," Brent says as Stacy stands high above him in Papago Park. "But she's content as well in just a quiet, everyday normal life."

Normal? When you've won an Olympic gold medal? Despite her success, Dragila remains grounded, a down-to-earth, charismatic athlete without the airs of some superstars.

"Love her to death," says Tim McClellan, Dragila's strength and conditioning coach. "She's extremely outgoing and fun."

Says Steiner, the up-and-coming training partner from Arkansas: "I feel like the luckiest vaulter in the nation right now."

Nowhere does Dragila's friendly demeanor play better than near the end of Valley Vista Lane in Auburn, where her parents, Bill and Irma Mikaelsen, live in a modest house overlooking 35 acres.

"Everybody says that to me, Boy, you must be proud of Stacy," Bill Mikaelsen says. "But what I'm most proud of is Stacy's still Stacy."





Even gold medalists have their idols. Dragila beams as she tells the story of crashing a private party thrown by Tiger Woods after the 2000 Olympics.

It turns out all she had to do to get in was show her gold medal.

"Pretty awesome," she says.

So was 2000. Dragila set a world record in her backyard at the Olympic Trials at Hornet Stadium, clearing 15-2 1/4. And when she cleared 15-1 to beat Australian Tatiana Grigorieva (14-11) and Iceland's Vala Flosadottir (14-9) to claim gold in the first women's Olympic pole vault competition, well ...

"I remember hugging both Vala and Tatiana and I'm like, We're the first ones," she says. "It was so much fun."

But life after Sydney quickly grew chaotic. Dragila cut short a vacation in Australia to return to the U.S. for a variety of obligations and appearances, including spots on game shows like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Hollywood Squares" and a Visa commercial where she vaulted maybe 50 times, injuring a hamstring.

"You start thinking about all the potential sponsors you might be missing out on," she says. "That's kind of the fun part of it."

Dragila says she and Brent live well off their track and sponsorship income -- she has deals with Nike and Oakley sunglasses, pushing her combined annual income into the mid-six figure range, says Brent -- although she concedes the post-Sydney bonanza didn't add up to what she'd been led to believe.

Dragila confesses her biggest post-Olympic blunder came at the White House, where she botched her lines while speaking to former President Clinton for the U.S. team.

"I get up, 'Uh, president, uh, uh, uh, where am I?' " she says. "I felt like a total (idiot) in front of all my peers. It was horrible.

"I shook his hand in the Green Room, and he kind of gave me that look, kind of like, 'Hi there.' It kind of freaked me out."

Watching the Russians pass you by can prove unnerving, too. So Dragila does what Hull asks, trusting this is the road back to the top of the medal stand.

She says she felt cradled and nurtured by Nielsen, but prefers Hull's emphasis on learning to think for herself.

"When I had to go to meets by myself, I felt like I was lost," she says.

Nielsen recalls too many people trying to give Dragila input.

"It kind of drove me nuts, to have so many people say, If only you did this, you'd be so much better," he says. "It wasn't a situation of magic where we'd had before. It was a situation of turmoil."

Now, Dragila pushes toward a showdown with the Russians.

"Bring it on," she says with conviction.

Her goal is to reach the 16-foot level, and then shoot for five meters (16-4 3/4). But just 6 1/2 weeks shy of her 33rd birthday, she's more prone to injury than four years ago.

And it's tough to change your style after doing it differently for 10 years.

Still, Dragila envisions climbing to the top of the Olympic medal stand one more time.

"My weight training, my days out at the track ... why shouldn't I be there?" she asks. "I deserve this as much as anybody else.

"I'm not going to let anybody else take it from me."

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... ck0227.htm

Valley-trained Dragila is vaulting for 8th U.S. Indoor title


Jeff Metcalfe
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 27, 2004 12:00 AM


Stacy Dragila tries for her eighth pole vault title at the U.S. Indoor Track Championships, today through Sunday in Boston.

The 32-year-old defending Olympic gold medal winner, training in Phoenix with Sky Athletics, is a heavy favorite. The top two in each event qualify for the World Indoor, March 5-7 in Budapest, Hungary, where Dragila hopes to compete against Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva. Both Russians have raised the world indoor record this year, most recently to 15 feet, 11 inches by Feofanova.

"Stacy is ready to jump that high," her coach, Greg Hull, said. "She lost to them quite a few times (in 2003), and there is some importance just to getting back and showing them she's not rolling over and playing dead."

Dragila has cleared 15-5 1/2 this year and missed at a world-record attempt in four of her six indoor meets. She was in the pit on one of those attempts when the bar wiggled off.

Dragila has won every U.S. Indoor title since the inclusion of women's pole vault except for 2002, when she did not compete.

Defending Olympic men's pole vault champion Nick Hysong of Phoenix decided to compete at nationals after clearing 17-10 1/2 last week in Birmingham, England. Hysong's training was affected for a month by a respiratory illness, and he probably won't be a serious threat to Jeff Hartwig (2004 world leader at 19-3 1/2) and Derek Miles.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... _dragila_1

Pole Vaulter Dragila Looks to Improve

Fri Feb 27, 5:39 PM ET

By JIMMY GOLEN, AP Sports Writer

BOSTON - Stacy Dragila relied on sheer athleticism to become a pole vault champion. She knows it will take more than that to remain one.

"The pole vault came around so fast for me. I picked it up so quickly that I never became a technician," she said on Friday as she prepared to defend her title at the U.S. Indoor Track and Field championships.

"Now I realize, `Hey, if I'm going to be in the mix with these young girls who learned to do it properly right from the get-go, I need to work on this.'"

A high school rodeo star and a heptathlete, Dragila was among the pioneers of women's pole vaulting when it was first contested internationally in the mid-1990s. She won the inaugural gold medal in the event at the Sydney Olympics (news - web sites) in 2000 and has won 14 U.S. indoor and outdoor titles in all.

But all that early success may have kept Dragila from honing her craft.

Although she trained just as hard back then, she now realizes that she didn't pay enough attention to the fundamentals of jumping. It didn't seem to matter much when she was setting the world record eight times over, but with Russians Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva surpassing her last year, it was time to worry.

Dragila, who turns 33 next month, lost both the indoor and outdoor world records in 2003, the former to the 23-year-old Feofanova and the latter to the 21-year-old Isinbayeva. After Dragila no-heighted at the indoor worlds, she dedicated herself to learning the sport all over again.

No more taking off as much as 18 inches too close to the box and costing herself valuable height on the upswing. No more winging it, relying on her athleticism to make up for a lack of technique.

"I kind of had to make a decision right then and there what I wanted to do with my career," she said.

Dragila changed coaches and moved her training from Idaho to Phoenix. Greg Hull, who also trains men's gold medalist Nick Hysong, is trying to teach Dragila the things she never bothered with before because she was good enough to win most times without them.

Hull wants Dragila jump farther from the box â€â€

[rainbowgirl28]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... gold_run_1

Pole Vaulter: Experience May Beat Russians

Thu Aug 12, 1:52 AM ET

By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer

GEORGIOUPOLIS, Greece - Stacy Dragila (news - web sites) has watched Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva soar to one pole vault world record after another, with decidedly mixed feelings.

"It's heart-wrenching. It makes me ill," she said with a laugh. "But it's also very exciting, for me to be part of the groundbreaking process in the event and seeing where it's going."

The 33-year-old Dragila intends to go with it, too.

She is a pioneer, the only Olympic gold medalist the women's pole vault has known, winner of the event's first two outdoor world championships. She set the world record eight times in 2001.

To keep the event from passing her by, she moved from Idaho to Arizona last year, switched coaches, refreshed her attitude and gave her vaulting style a complete makeover.

"That's why I moved to Phoenix," she said, "to try something new and get to those new heights where the Russians are going. That's where I envision myself being and I'd love to be there before I retired."

The powerhouse Russian duo of Isinbayeva and Svetlana Feofanova make a formidable obstacle to Dragila's quest for another gold â€â€

[VaultNinja]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/kpvi/5027943/detail.html

-Pole Vaulting A Group Sport In Pocatello

-Stacy sets the mark that others follow

As Stacy Dragila returns to the Olympic stage for a second time, she hasn't forgotten who helped her get there. They call it the "Stacy Standard." It's not necessarily the feet and inches, but the character and commitment that draws the admiration of her colleagues.

Four years ago, Dragila received a proclamation from Governor Dirk Kempthorne acknowledging her positive and infectious influence. The award was given at the birthplace of women's pole vault. "I'm so proud to be from Pocatello," Dragila says. "That's the grass roots of where I started. That's the first time I ever picked up a pole, when I was at Idaho State."

This pole vaulting pioneer is fresh from qualifying for a second Olympic team. Her former coach, Dave Nielsen, says she's a good ambassador for the troubled sport of track and field. "She has been a revival for pole vault and track and field. Almost like no other track and field athlete," he says.

Another following in her footsteps is Carolina-born Lindsay Taylor.

"I thank my lucky stars every single day how some things happen. I have not idea," says Taylor, who now trains with Dave Nielsen, and who, after vaulting for just over a year, finished eighth in the recent Olympic trials. "Everyday I see things that make my technique just a little closer to where I want to be."

Dragila and Taylor are collectively the present and future of Olympic pole vault. ISU's track coach says his former assistant has set an amazing standard. "Stacy does just and awesome job," he syas. "First World Champion, first World Outdoor Champion, first Olympic Champion. What an awesome string -- where do you go from there?"

And Dragila passes along the praise to Taylor. "I know she's an awesome athlete," Dragila says. "She's got foot speed. I've seen her pole vault several times and she's just learning. She's made leaps and bounds. She just looks like an athlete."

It's that authenticity that makes Dragila appealing to watch and work with. "Right athlete, right time, right personality," says Nielsen. "She carries herself very well. She's very genuine and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to work with her."

It's the new Stacy Dragila, draped in new Nike duds and a slick marketing campaign, but still very much the girl next door.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... 0819135148

Don't count out The Chick with The Stick

ATHENS (AFP) - Reigning Olympic women's pole vault champion Stacy Dragila (news - web sites) may, at 33, be the oldest competitor among the 38 entries for her event but the American isn't ready to draw her pension yet.


"The younger girls haven't been in this situation before. I'm the older and wiser one," joked Dragila at a press conference here Thursday.

"I can remember what I did in 2000 and I can do it here. I can see myself on the podium. It's been a challenging, but fun, four years," added Dragila.

The women's pole vault made its debut in Sydney and Dragila - the self-styled Chick with The Stick who was largely responsible for the event's popularity - went into the record books as the first gold medalist.

However, since Dragila's last major gold medal at the 2001 World Championships, she has been knocked off her perch as the top women's pole vaulter by the Russian pair of of Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva.

This year Feofanova and Isinabayeva have improved the world record six times between them, with Isinbayeva clearing 4.90 metres in London last month to set the current standard.

However, Dragila herself has returned to form after spending much of 2002 and 2003 in the doldrums, clearing 4.83 metres earlier in the summer, a mark which was briefly the best ever recorded outdoors.

"They say that indoor marks are just the same as outdoors as far as world records but I disagree," said Dragila, clearly bitter that she was never accorded the formal recognition of having set an official world record.

Dragila attributes her return to form to a coaching and location change she made 18 months ago.

She is now guided by Greg Hull, who advises Sydney Olympics (news - web sites) men's pole vault champion Nick Hysong.

"To make a coaching change so late in a career would be devastating for many athletes but for me it was a re-charging of the batteries," said Dragila.

The women's pole vault usually attend a raucious crowd following but there is likely to be little chit-chat among the leading contenders.

There is a cold war between Dragila and the Russians, and Isinbayeva and Feofanova are well known to be barely on speaking terms.

Dragila thinks that going into the competition with the spotlight on Feofanova and Isinbayeva will act in her favour.

"In 1999, at the World Championships, I was the dark horse and pulled it off. Of course there have been a lot of changes since then, but I've got my game plan."

Qualifying for the event takes place on Saturday with the final on Tuesday.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.iaaf.org/OLY04/news/Kind=2/newsId=26845.html

Dragila - The 'Tiger is going to come out' in Athens
Friday 20 August 2004
The women’s Pole Vault has evolved dramatically since Stacy Dragila became the event’s first-ever Olympic gold medallist four years ago in Sydney. But the 33-year-old American champion has managed to keep in virtual lock step with her much younger competition, and begins competition Saturday as a solid podium contender.

Her ‘New Challenge’

“It’s been a different type of challenge,â€Â

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2 ... 2scoop.txt

Dragila at a crossroad?
Sierra Scoop

By: Todd Mordhorst
Sunday, August 7, 2005 12:00 AM PDT


This Wednesday evening could go a long way toward determining the next move for perhaps the greatest athlete in Placer High history.

Stacy Dragila is set to compete against the world's best pole vaulters for what could be one of the the final meets in her storied career at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships, beginning today in Helsinki, Finland.

The qualifying round in the women's pole vault will take place this morning, with the finals scheduled for Wednesday night.

The 1990 Placer High graduate will square off against a field that includes younger, healthier athletes this week, but don't count her out.

The gold medallist in the inaugural Olympic women's pole vault competition in 2000 has had a lackluster summer by her own lofty standards. But if she can put together a run at another world title - she won the first-ever women's world title in 1999 and won another in 2001 - it could trigger a run at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And what a dramatic run that would be.

At age 34, Dragila is already defying convention by staying competitive on the world stage. She claimed her ninth U.S. Outdoor Championship in June, and despite nagging injuries, she's still a threat to win international competitions on any given day.

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If Dragila could maintain her health and still has the desire to compete when 2008 comes around, it would be quite a scene in China. It would be another unprecedented accomplishment for the woman whose career has been defined by ventures into uncharted territory.

After her dramatic win at the U.S. Outdoors in June, Dragila told the Associated Press she plans on competing through the 2007 season before making a decision about Beijing.

"If I keep doing this and keep having heart attacks, probably not," Dragila joked after missing at the opening height on her first two attempts at the U.S. Outdoors. "No, as long as I'm healthy, that's the plan."

But first things first. This week, Dragila will likely need to at least approach her personal best - 15 feet, 10 inches - to contend for the world championship.

The talented field includes world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia along with countrywoman Tatyana Polnova. Poland's Anna Rogowska and Monika Pyrek have been vaulting well and should be in the mix as well.

Isinbayeva is clearly the favorite. The Russian cleared 16-2 this summer to re-set the world record. Dragila has had the 16-foot mark circled on her agenda for a couple of years.

Tim Layden, of Sports Illustrated, wrote last month that Isinbayeva has done what Dragila predicted women would be doing a few years ago - clear 16 feet and close in on the 16-5 (5-meter) barrier.

"Isinbayeva has done one and will soon do the other," Layden wrote. "Dragila is 34. She was a pioneer in a new event. She deserves much credit for driving the vault's early growth and for winning its first Olympic gold medal, competing into the cold night in Sydney. Isinbayeva is 23. She is the future."

Perhaps Dragila can put the future on hold, beginning this week in Finland.

Todd Mordhorst's column runs Sundays. To reach him e-mail to toddm@goldcountrymedia.com.