Despite a nagging injury, Dragila's career isn't over
Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 11:47 am
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 1322c.html
Track and field beat: Despite a nagging injury, Dragila's career isn't over
By John Schumacher -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Story appeared in Sports section, Page C2
Stacy Dragila isn't ready to store the poles and call it a career, thank you.
Yes, the thought has crossed her mind, but she keeps thinking there's more out there in the event she helped define.
So the women's pole vault pioneer from Placer High School in Auburn tries to keep the frustration in check as she waits...and waits...and waits... for an injured right Achilles' tendon to heal.
She has talked with enough doctors to make her head spin, the varying opinions simply adding to her frustration. Despite all the setbacks, Dragila hopes to jump in the USA Outdoor Championships, set for June 21-25 in Indianapolis.
"In the fall, I was like, What am I doing?" Dragila said while watching the recent Modesto Relays. "Is God telling me, Just be done, nicely? But then I started doing things again, and it felt good and I was excited.
"Then you have setbacks again....Yeah, it's been frustrating. It's really testing me. But I really feel like I have something to do. My practices show that I'm fit. I just need to be on the runway and taking jumps."
Dragila, who won the Olympic gold medal in 2000 and set the American record of 15 feet, 10 inches in 2004, has left coach Greg Hull in Phoenix and rented an apartment in Pocatello, Idaho, to train under her former coach, Dave Nielsen. That move came after she won her ninth U.S. Outdoor title with a 14-71/4 clearance in Carson last June and then failed to clear that same height in qualifying in the world championships in Helsinki, Finland.
"Right after Helsinki I had to really make a choice," said Dragila, 35. "Things were good when I first went down there (Phoenix), and it was nice to have a change and hear it differently from Greg. But Dave and I have such a history together.
"He's a more holistic coach for me. I can trust him with everything. He just knows me. He knows my quirks, my kinks. It's just been really good to get back up there."
Even if the Achilles' isn't cooperating. Dragila, a heptathlete at Yuba College, did get in a 19-4 1/4 long jump in a meet in Pocatello on Feb. 4 and planned to add a hurdles race the following week. But she injured a calf muscle going over the third hurdle. She recovered in 3 1/2 weeks - doctors told her
some scar tissue simply had pulled away - and remembers feeling she had more range of motion in her Achilles'.
After "a pretty good jump session" five weeks ago that included a full run with no pain, Dragila woke up the next day with the Achilles' totally inflamed.
"Could barely touch it," she said.
Dragila has been receiving shock-wave therapy at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. She also has consulted a doctor in Boise, Idaho. And she has talked with German vaulter Tim Lobinger about a treatment available in Europe that's not approved in the United States. Sounds like a vaulter with more bars to clear.
Track and field beat: Despite a nagging injury, Dragila's career isn't over
By John Schumacher -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Story appeared in Sports section, Page C2
Stacy Dragila isn't ready to store the poles and call it a career, thank you.
Yes, the thought has crossed her mind, but she keeps thinking there's more out there in the event she helped define.
So the women's pole vault pioneer from Placer High School in Auburn tries to keep the frustration in check as she waits...and waits...and waits... for an injured right Achilles' tendon to heal.
She has talked with enough doctors to make her head spin, the varying opinions simply adding to her frustration. Despite all the setbacks, Dragila hopes to jump in the USA Outdoor Championships, set for June 21-25 in Indianapolis.
"In the fall, I was like, What am I doing?" Dragila said while watching the recent Modesto Relays. "Is God telling me, Just be done, nicely? But then I started doing things again, and it felt good and I was excited.
"Then you have setbacks again....Yeah, it's been frustrating. It's really testing me. But I really feel like I have something to do. My practices show that I'm fit. I just need to be on the runway and taking jumps."
Dragila, who won the Olympic gold medal in 2000 and set the American record of 15 feet, 10 inches in 2004, has left coach Greg Hull in Phoenix and rented an apartment in Pocatello, Idaho, to train under her former coach, Dave Nielsen. That move came after she won her ninth U.S. Outdoor title with a 14-71/4 clearance in Carson last June and then failed to clear that same height in qualifying in the world championships in Helsinki, Finland.
"Right after Helsinki I had to really make a choice," said Dragila, 35. "Things were good when I first went down there (Phoenix), and it was nice to have a change and hear it differently from Greg. But Dave and I have such a history together.
"He's a more holistic coach for me. I can trust him with everything. He just knows me. He knows my quirks, my kinks. It's just been really good to get back up there."
Even if the Achilles' isn't cooperating. Dragila, a heptathlete at Yuba College, did get in a 19-4 1/4 long jump in a meet in Pocatello on Feb. 4 and planned to add a hurdles race the following week. But she injured a calf muscle going over the third hurdle. She recovered in 3 1/2 weeks - doctors told her
some scar tissue simply had pulled away - and remembers feeling she had more range of motion in her Achilles'.
After "a pretty good jump session" five weeks ago that included a full run with no pain, Dragila woke up the next day with the Achilles' totally inflamed.
"Could barely touch it," she said.
Dragila has been receiving shock-wave therapy at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. She also has consulted a doctor in Boise, Idaho. And she has talked with German vaulter Tim Lobinger about a treatment available in Europe that's not approved in the United States. Sounds like a vaulter with more bars to clear.
