PoleVaultPower.com

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 3530c.html

Stevenson hits new heights at the perfect time

By John Schumacher -- Bee Staff Writer

Spotting Toby Stevenson near the pole vault pit has always been easy. He's the guy with the helmet, barreling down the runway without the slightest hint of hesitation.

But no longer is the former Stanford standout best known for what he wears. Now, he's developing quite a reputation for soaring high, and putting on a pretty good celebration to boot.

Stevenson's ascent to the top of the pole vault world started in February when he cleared 19 feet, 3/4 of an inch to win the USA Indoor Championships in Boston.

He really stormed the stage at the Modesto Relays in May, clearing 19-8 1/4 to improve his personal best by 7 1/2 inches.

It was a thing of beauty to watch, with Stevenson prompting the crowd to join in some rhythmic clapping as he first cleared 18-10 1/4, then 19-2 1/4 and finally 19-8 1/4.

And when he cleared that bar to become the ninth vaulter to join the 6-meter club outdoors, he flung his helmet, pumped his arms to the crowd and embraced well-wishers who stormed the pit.

Since then, Stevenson has cleared 19-5 3/4 at the Sky Invitational in Phoenix, 18-4 1/2 at the Home Depot Invitational, 19-2 1/4 at the Payton Jordan U.S. Open and 19-0 1/4 at the Prefontaine Classic, establishing himself as the clear favorite in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials that begin next week at Hornet Stadium.

Maybe now people will know him for his skills, not his uniform.

"I've been jumping my entire career to be known as a vaulter, not as a vaulter in the helmet," said Stevenson, the 1998 NCAA champion who later became an assistant coach at Stanford.

"The helmet I wear for safety issues. It's a part of my uniform. It's not that big of a deal."

Stevenson said his parents asked him to wear a helmet when he was a senior in high school in Texas. He carries two roller blade hockey helmets, one for meets and one for practice.

"I'm a big advocate of it," said the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Stevenson. "If you want to wear it, wear it. If you don't want to wear it, don't. I believe they're a good idea."

With five Americans ranked among the top 13 vaulters in the world, Stevenson knows a ticket to Athens is no cinch. But the way he's jumping, it's hard not to think about heading to Greece.

And maybe returning with something gold. Stevenson owns the top three jumps in the world this year, with no one else going higher than 19-1 1/4.

"It's all coming together right now," said Stevenson, whose Modesto effort trails only American record holder Jeff Hartwig (19-9 1/4) on the all-time U.S. list.

"Six meters (19-8 1/4 ) has won Olympic gold in every Olympics so far. Granted, I've got to do it on that day. But I hope today (in Modesto) established me as a legitimate jumper."

It did. His main rivals for a spot on the U.S. team - Hartwig, Derek Miles, 2000 gold medalist Nick Hysong, Tim Mack, Brad Walker and Tommy Skipper - know they're chasing him now.

"Toby's on a roll," Miles said. "He's got everything going for him."

Said Skipper: "Toby has really raised the bar here for all the U.S. vaulters. ... If somebody does something well, you have to try to capitalize on that energy."

Stevenson, meanwhile, is capitalizing on confidence.

"Before my 6-meter jump and 5.94 (19-5 3/4), I was always trying to jump big and clear the big bar," he said. "Now, I'm more relaxed."

Stevenson, 27, moved to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista two years ago to focus on getting ready for an Olympic run. He coaches himself, using the relative isolation of the training facility to focus on improving his technique.

"That allowed me the opportunity to really study the pole vault, study my jumps, just study the way everybody jumps and put it all together," he said.

"It's definitely a great place to focus, get in tune with yourself."

And not get too full of yourself.

"I've got to keep in the same path I've been going," he said. "I've got to stay healthy, I've got to keep training, keep doing the right things, not get distracted by all the Olympic talk, predictions, all that.

"I'm jumping my way, coaching my way, doing everything the way I want to jump. I want to teach myself how to jump like me, not somebody else."

So far, it looks as if he's picked a pretty good vaulter to imitate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/sport ... ALTAVISTA1

Stevenson Takes Different Approach to Pole-Vaulting
By FRANK LITSKY

Published: July 11, 2004



ACRAMENTO, July 10 - For years, Toby Stevenson has been different.

Instead of using his economics degree from Stanford to start a business, which is still a goal, he has become a full-time pole-vaulter. Instead of letting the breeze fly through his hair, he wears a battered hockey helmet. Instead of settling in as a steady but unspectacular competitor, he has vaulted to No. 1 in the world.

His improvement has been drastic. Before this year, his career best was 18 feet 10¼ inches. Two months ago in Modesto, Calif., he cleared 19-8¼. No one else in the world has jumped that high this year, and only seven men have jumped higher. The world record is 20-2 by Sergei Bubka of Ukraine in 1993.

Stevenson, at 27, is competing in the United States Olympic trials and will face 11 others in the final Sunday night. The top three will qualify for the Olympics next month in Athens.

In Friday's preliminaries, the 12 who advanced cleared 18-½. Stevenson made it easily, passing on the opening height of 17-8½ and clearing 18-½ on his first attempt. Nick Hysong, the 2000 Olympic champion, qualified, too. Jeff Hartwig, the American-record holder at 19-9¼, and Tommy Skipper, the N.C.A.A. champion at 18-8¼, did not. Hartwig protested that the vault officials did not give him enough time on one attempt, but the protest was rejected.

For Hartwig, 36, this was a last hurrah. When asked about future Olympics, he said: "Absolutely not. No chance." For Skipper, a 19-year-old Oregon freshman, there may be better days. For Stevenson, there seems to be an unlimited future.

"The last three months have been great," Stevenson said. "I'm superconfident I will make the team, but I say that humbly. If I go to Athens, I will go to medal. I've been putting in four or five hours a day preparing for this.

"I'm not complaining. It's a job, but it's a blast. Whenever the fun dies out, I'm going to stop."

That seems a long way off, because Stevenson said he thought he had found the missing part of the puzzle.

"I finally figured out how to vault," he said. "I'm not trying to jump like anyone else anymore. Bubka was a great model, but I was taking a part of everyone, and I can't jump like anyone else's jump."

Until Stevenson went to Stanford, his only coach was his father, Eddy.

"We lived in Odessa, Tex.," Stevenson said. "My dad used to be a vaulter. I think he did 14 feet. When I was in seventh grade, I was doing gymnastics and my dad made me a vaulter."

The helmet business started early. There have been serious injuries and deaths to vaulters landing headfirst on a hard runway or a side area.

"I wear a roller hockey helmet," Stevenson said. "My parents were looking for one for years. In my senior year in high school, I got this one. The other guys needle me about it all the time, but wearing it is no bother."

Stevenson also has the right build for his job. At 6 feet 1 inch and 180 pounds, he has good size for a discipline that requires speed down the runway, power to bend the pole and flexibility to rise and roll over the bar. He is also on a hot streak, and Hartwig, the only American who has ever vaulted higher, is not.

"My heart goes out to him," Stevenson said of Hartwig. "Every time you go out, it's a different game. There are no guarantees."

Hartwig is prone to big-meet mishaps, notably in the 2000 Olympic trials here when he also failed to clear any height in the qualifying round. He took his latest setback calmly.

"I've jumped 19 feet in four of my last six meets, but bad things keep happening to me," Hartwig said. "In the grand scheme of things, I'm not going to let this bother me. This is a small part of my career in this sport."

Pole-vaulters have their ups and downs in more ways than one. As Hartwig said of Stevenson, "He's running well and his technique is very sound, but he still has to execute the jump in the final the way he has all year."

Stevenson knows well the perils he avoided in the preliminaries here and the dangers he faces in Sunday's final.

"The Olympic trials are the worst meet you'll ever have," he said.

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw081504h.htm

PHS grad overcame to make Olympics

By Michael Kern
Odessa American

Twice, Eddie Stevenson wanted his son to quit the sport of pole vaulting. It was too dangerous. There was too much of a possibility that he could permanently injure himself … or worse.
It’s a good thing his son didn’t listen.
On Friday, Toby Stevenson, Permian High School Class of 1995, walked into the Olympic stadium in Athens, Greece, along with 608 other American athletes, representing his country in the Opening Ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Through two years of knee and ankle injuries, Toby persevered, eventually developing into the No. 1-ranked pole vaulter in the world. When he takes the track for the preliminaries Aug. 25, and likely the finals two days later, the 27-year-old will be a favorite to bring an Olympic medal back to Odessa.
“My first reaction when I got hurt was negative,â€Â

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw082204c.htm

Stevenson was a star even in high school


By Michael Kern
Odessa American

Former Odessa High assistant football and track coach Gary Callaway remembers the first time he ever saw Toby Stevenson vault.
Just a sophomore at Permian High School at the time, Stevenson was dominating the competition at the district track meet.
Little did Callaway know Stevenson would later go on to pole vault in the Olympics.
All Callaway was looking for was someone to coach his son Brent in the pole vault. Once he saw Stevenson, he knew where to find a coach.
“Toby had really impressed me with his fundamentals,â€Â

Toby is the man, what can I say?

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/olympi ... 14,00.html

Stevenson a must-see, but wait until after his vault

By Jody Berger, Rocky Mountain News
August 25, 2004

ATHENS - Toby Stevenson likes to take care of the little things that help him get over the big thing - that horizontal bar high above the pole-vault pit.

Like all elite athletes, he trains, eats right and makes sure he gets his rest.

But Stevenson goes a step further. The planning doesn't end when he plants his pole and soars over the bar.

Stevenson looks past the landing and plans his post-vault crash pad celebrations.

"It's one less thing to worry about," he said.

The only pole vaulter to wear a helmet, Stevenson also is the only one to choreograph a robot dance followed by the running man followed by a weird, Western-themed romp where he gallops his pole like a hobby horse.

"I love to put on a show," he said.

And unique celebrations seem the correct encore for Stevenson's unique style of jumping.

A great vaulter for most of his 27 years, Stevenson catapulted himself last year into the rarified air of 6-meter men, or guys who have cleared 19 feet, 81/4 inches.

"I'd been trying to jump like other people up until now," he said. "I realized that I've got the talent to jump that high, but I've got to do it my way."

Stevenson learned the sport in his back yard as a child in Odessa, Texas. His father, Eddie, taught him how and coached him to 24 high school records and a state championship in 1995.

From there, the 6-foot-1 Stevenson accepted an academic scholarship to Stanford, where he was a six-time All-American and an NCAA champion.

He graduated in 2000 but stayed in Palo Alto, Calif., to work as an assistant coach for two years.

"Coaching really helps you understand your vault a lot more," Stevenson said.

In 2002, Stevenson moved to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., and while he takes advantage of the center's strength and speed coaches, he coaches himself in the pole vault.

"I started watching video immediately after I jumped and immediately after I practiced," he said.

Whatever the process, it seemed to work when he became the second American to clear 19-81/4, and the only man anywhere to do it this year. That height would have won a gold medal at every Olympics so far.

"It does nothing but give me confidence," Stevenson said.

Men's pole vault qualifying rounds begin today. Because the competition can drag on for hours, Stevenson keeps himself entertained between jumps by dancing, talking to other vaulters and generally goofing around.

"I only need to concentrate for 15 seconds at a time," he said. "When they call your name, then it's time to focus."

The finals will be Friday night.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_2399220

Stanford graduate eyes gold on pole
Lively personality, helmet make Stevenson a crowd favorite

By Jeff Faraudo, STAFF WRITER

It all started in the back yard of Toby Stevenson's home in Odessa, the West Texas town known more for its oil booms and high school football mythology than the pole vault.

Stevenson was a seventh-grader and a promising gymnast when his father, Eddy, suggested it might be fun to propel his body over barriers far off the ground.

The whole thing was genetic. Eddy was a 14-foot vaulter in college in the late 1960s when that still was pretty good, and he later tried parachuting. Young Toby hardly was a couch potato.

"He was real rambunctious, more than you can imagine," the elder Stevenson said, noting that Toby's inclinations leaned toward street-bike racing.

So Eddy Stevenson, a biomechanics professor at the University of Texas-Odessa, and a self-described "master mechanic and engineer," built a pole vault pit in the family's backyard. The facility had a 100-foot, raised wooden runway and a landing pit made of old mattresses and foam that father and son collected around town.

"It looked like a real pole vault pit," Toby said, "but it was homemade."

Of course, so was Toby Stevenson, Olympic pole vaulter and 2004 world leader in the event.

The 27-year-old Stanford grad, who this spring became just the ninth man in history to clear the six-meter (19 feet, 81/4 inch) barrier, rates as a legitimate gold-medal contender when the competition begins Wednesday in Athens.

"I can win," Stevenson said recently. "It's going to be super-hard, but my confidence is as high as it's ever been, I've got the skills and I'm jumping high enough now that I can flat-out win it."

Back on that first day in his back yard, the young man and the event meshed quickly. "I just went back and forth all day,"

Stevenson recalled.

"I counted, and he took 60 jumps the first day," Eddy said. "The next day he couldn't even get out of bed."

Stevenson wasn't grounded for long. Coached from the beginning by his father, he soon was clearing 15 feet in his back yard. Eddy insists it was at least 16 feet. Toby scaled a state-record 17 feet as a high school senior, giving him the chance to pick Stanford over Penn or Harvard.

Stevenson won the NCAA title as a sophomore in 1998 and cleared 18-91/2 as a senior. But he improved just three-quarters of an inch over the next three seasons, until this year.

Then, after years of fierce training and self-discovery as a vaulter, the athlete known primarily for wearing a roller-hockey helmet became an overnight success.

He cleared three personal-best heights   on the same afternoon on May 8 at the Modesto Relays, adding an astounding 10 inches to his outdoor lifetime best with his clearance of 19-81/4.

At the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento last month, Stevenson finished second after solid attempts at 19-4 and 19-6.

Even then, attention focused on his antics in the pit, the "dances" he performs after successful jumps. Stevenson will ride the pole as if it's a horse, fire imaginary six-shooters in the air, or move mechanically to simulate a robot.

He says he celebates to entertain the crowd, but also to keep his mind clear. Pole vault competitions can last two to three hours, and Stevenson said it's important to "unfocus" during the meet.

"You've got to relieve stress between jumps," he said. "On the lower heights, I'm thinking of the silly things I'm going to do instead of (thinking about) technique.

"I need to be focused for about 10 to 15 seconds, from when I step on the runway to when I clear the bar. In between, it's about getting back into my groove, which is to relax, have a good time, save energy."

Stevenson said he has heard talk that officials would prefer he tone down his act in Athens. He said he plans to be respectful in front of an international audience, but stressed that European crowds typically enjoy his routine.

"I want to bring some life back into track and field," he said. "I'm not taunting or acting all macho. I'm just goofy."

That loose skateboarder image flies in the face of Stevenson's workout routines. From the outset, his only role model in the event was the man his father refers to as "The Master," Ukrainian legend Sergei Bubka.

Bubka, who owns the 23 highest clearances in history, including the 1994 world record of 20 feet, 2 inches, blended strength and speed with peerless technique. No other man has vaulted 20 feet, a height Bubka scaled 11 times.

From Bubka, Stevenson borrowed old-school training methods that few other U.S. vaulters utilize.

"It's this archaic, brutal, physical thing," his dad said. "He'll run bleachers with a 14-pound pipe until he throws up. Most Americans wouldn't be caught dead doing something that low-tech. Bubka's workouts were like that -- nothing but power."

Although he never has had a full-time vault coach -- other than his dad -- Stevenson has enjoyed the benefits of several coaches who honed his raw skills. At Stanford, former long jumper Edrick Floreal was able to provide general critiques that allowed Stevenson to make critical adjustments.

Over the past year, Stevenson   has lived at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, where Todd Henson, a speed and fitness consultant, worked in greater detail with his sprint mechanics. He said training partner Kurt Hanna, formerly of Baylor, also has been a big help.

Now, finally, all of it is coming together.

"I'm taking the time to learn the event as it pertains to me," Stevenson said. "And when in doubt, get faster, stronger."

That lets him get higher on the pole when he releases over the bar.

"The whole idea is, you want to accelerate your body faster than the pole is releasing you," Stevenson said. "When you hit a good one, you can tell. It's almost a weightlessness because your body just soars over it."

Stevenson's success this year has allowed him to begin escaping his one-dimensional reputation as the vaulter who wears a helmet to pacify his mother.

Toby downplays the origins of the helmet, suggesting only that he was self-conscious about it for a while.

"I'm a senior in high school, the king of the town, trying to win a state championship, and I'm putting this helmet on," said Stevenson, who now is entirely comfortable wearing the protective head gear.

Dad recalls the story differently, explaining that he gave his son two choices   -- a black helmet or a white one -- and said he was finished vaulting unless he strapped on one of them.

"He didn't speak to me for a week," Eddy said, "but by the end of that week, he'd already set a school record."

Stevenson now finds himself just three-quarters of an inch shy of Jeff Hartwig's four-year-old American record of 19-91/4. But it's Bubka's mark that has his attention.

"Twenty-foot-two is do-able," he said. "Do I want to do it? Hell yeah! Do I think I can? Yes. I don't know what will happen, but I will end my career having taken shots at the record."

Stevenson's father is more definitive.

"This will be your next world-recordholder," Eddy Stevenson predicted. "No matter how the (Athens) Games go, truly by the Olympics in 2008, Toby will be the world recordholder, and everybody will consider him The Master."