Dragila takes her final shot

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Final shot at glory

ISJ file photo In what she says is her final year competing, pole vaulter Stacy Dragila, shown holding an American flag in Pocatello shortly before leaving for the 2000 Olympics, will compete in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, set to begin today in Berlin.

tflagstad@journalnet.com

After failing to qualify for the Athens Olympics at the 2004 U.S. track and field trials, pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig told the assembled media members that they wouldn't see him make another run at the Games.

At the time, Hartwig was 36 years old and figured he wouldn't last four more years in the grueling sport. Having made the 1996 Atlanta Games, Hartwig was content with his career had it ended right then.
Then, a little doubt started to enter his mind that he truly was finished.

He kept jumping, and in 2007, he was still in relatively good shape. So he turned his attention to 2008 and the Beijing Olympics. After finishing second at the U.S. trials in Eugene, Ore., with a jump of 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches, Hartwig had to face the same reporter who asked about his plans in 2004.
The athlete didn't mind admitting he was wrong four years earlier. After all, he had just qualified for another Olympic team.

"It was definitely a cherry on top of the sundae for me at the end of my career to make the U.S. Olympic team at 40 years old and go represent the U.S. Olympic team in the Olympics," Hartwig said.
If she sticks to her plan of retiring at the end of the season, Idaho State graduate and former Pocatello resident Stacy Dragila will cap her storied pole vaulting career in a similarly sweet way.

At the end of June, the 2000 women's pole vault gold medalist finished third at the U.S. track and field championships on the same Hayward Field track on which Hartwig achieved his final big feat. Based on that podium finish, Dragila, who is now 38, will represent the United States -- most likely for the final time -- when the IAAF World Championships in Athletics open today in Berlin.
"I'm glad I'm on the team. I'm with a good group of people," Dragila said in a phone interview from Germany. "It'll be my last team, so I'm gonna make the best of it."

Throughout her pioneering career in the sport, Dragila has captured two world championships (1999 and 2001) along with the sport's first-ever gold medal in Sydney, Australia.
She no longer talks solely of winning gold. Rather, she believes a top-five finish and a jump around 15-5 are realistic goals.

The tempered expectations for an athlete accustomed to dominating the sport earlier in her career don't surprise Hartwig, who now serves as an agent for several track and field standouts.
"At one point in my career, there was nobody in the world that I thought I couldn't beat," Hartwig said. "Later in my career, there were a few guys that I knew that if they were on that it didn't matter what I did, I couldn't beat them."

No matter how fit and technically sound a vaulter remains, eventually age sheds precious speed from the athlete's approach down the runway, which directly correlates with how high he or she can leap.
It happened to Hartwig, and based on what he saw of Dragila during a July meet in London, the same is happening to her, he said.

"Her speed isn't what it used to be," Hartwig said. "She still jumps great. Technically, she's still one of the best in the world.
"At the same time, you can draw on muscle memory and experience and the fact that you've done it 100 times before."

Dragila certainly has.

Around the turn of the century, she threatened the world record each time she propelled herself down the runway. From 1999 to 2001, she set the standard for the sport 10 times, peaking at 15-9 1/4. In 2004, she leaped a personal-best 15-10.

Her 2009 peak of 15-1 1/2 is the eighth-best mark of the 31 competitors entered in the field.

"Luckily, I've been doing it long enough and know I've done all the preparation I can possibly do," Dragila said, "and now I just need to focus on the good things I've been doing and really capitalize on those things."

American record holder and 2008 silver medalist Jennifer Stuczynski withdrew from the competition Sunday because of a string of injuries, and world record holder and reigning Olympic and world champion Yelena Isinbayeva has looked vulnerable at times this season. She finished second at the July meet in London -- her first loss in 19 events -- and her season-best mark of 15-11 is far below her record jump of 16-6 3/4 set at the Beijing Games.

With all of that in mind, Dragila knows the event is wide open. After a summer competing across Europe, she's buoyed by the solid two weeks of work at her home base in the Saarland state of Germany before leaving for Berlin.

"I still feel fresh. I've had four or five good practices in a row," Dragila said in the Aug. 8 interview. "I feel really confident right now that things are really coming around for me."

Regardless of how she fares, ending her career representing Team USA at an international competition should make the transition into retirement easier, if she follows through on her plans to hang it up after this season.

Hartwig certainly knows exiting after one last chance on a major stage helped him deal with walking away.

"I never wanted to be that athlete who lingered. It was satisfying that I got to go out on a high note," he said. "I didn't just fade away because I couldn't get into any meets." Dragila will have the chance to say the same thing.

By Tim Flagstad


This document was originally published online on Saturday, August 15, 2009