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Stacy Dragila
(former Placer HS of Auburn/Idaho State) USATF Interview teleconference
excerpts
Kirby Lee catches former Placer HS of Auburn star Stacy Dragila at the
January Vault Summit
Olympic gold medalist, two-time world outdoor champion and outdoor world
record holder Stacy Dragila will compete in the Visa women’s pole
vault
Sunday at the 2003 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Boston.
On
USATF’s 2003 Indoor Golden Spike Tour, Dragila twice has broken
her own
American record, first by jumping 4.71m/15-5.5 February 1 at the adidas
Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center, where
she
will compete Sunday. Dragila then improved her record by clearing
4.72/15-5.75 February 7 at the Verizon Millrose Games in Madison Square
Garden.
Dragila spoke by USATF national teleconference to the media on Tuesday.
Below are excerpts from that teleconference.
For more information on the 2003 USA Indoor Championships, the 2003 Indoor
Golden Spike Tour and for a biography of Dragila, visit the USATF Web
site,
www.usatf.org. A digital audio replay of Tuesday’s teleconference
also will
be available online.
Q: You broke the American record at the Reggie Lewis Center on February
1.
Does the facility suit your jumping style?
A: Boston is a great facility. It mimics a lot of the European indoor
facilities with a small, intimate setting. The crowd is right on top of
you.
It’s fast – it’s a very hard surface. If you’re
ready to set the jump up,
the track is there for great heights and fast marks. I got to stay in
Boston
for a week after the Boston Indoor Games, before Millrose. Practicing
there
helped prepare me again and again for what will go on at the Indoor
Championships. I love to get the crowd involved, and for the get the crowd
behind me and clap me down the runway.
Q: When you hear about Svetlana Feofanova (of Russia, the current world
indoor record holder) doing well, does that motivate you?
A: It does spur me on, but I don’t get on the Internet and find
where she’s
jumping next. It distracts from what I’m trying to focus on in my
practices.
On the track, I stick with my game plan. If I watch her clearing bars
on
first heights on first attempts, looking awesome, it’s going to
play with my
mind. I didn’t even know she was jumping on Friday. But if I’m
jumping at
the world record, you need to make sure you are jumping the world record
[and make sure Feofanova hasn’t raised it earlier in the day].
It’s great for our sport that there is someone that is pushing
the mark up.
I feel that I’m up there on the verge of adding another centimeter
or 10
centimeters. It’s motivating to go to practice and focus on what
I need to
do.
Q: Are you looking forward to competing against Feofanova at the World
Indoor Championships, March 14-16 in Birmingham?
A: Sometimes we simulate what might happen at World Indoors: is it going
to
come down to me and her? But then I say let’s just work on getting
to the
World Championships and making opening height. If I start focusing on
her it
will rattle me. If she challenges me, it’s going to trigger me to
be that
much more competitive. I think it would be much like the [2001] World
Outdoor Championships in Edmonton. I didn’t think she was going
to be
jumping the heights she was. It was an awesome head-to-head competition,
and
a long day. I know she’s going to want to hold onto her world record
and
have an indoor title to her name. I want the world record, and I haven’t
had
an indoor championship to my name in a long time [since 1997].
Q: The way the world record has been going, is there a limit to how high
a
woman can pole vault? Do you think about that?
A: I haven’t thought about that at all this year. We have a biomechanic
who
works with us. As fast as I’m running now, I could potentially jump
17 feet.
So why aren’t I doing it? It’s technique and strength. If
we can somehow
make our jumps even better here and there, 17 feet is not out of the
question. I hope to be one of those people to be pushing it to the 17-foot
barrier.
Q: In training, what are you jumping?
A: I have been over my outdoor world record (4.81/15-9.25).
Q: Do you analyze with video?
A: We were doing that a lot early in the season, but we’ve backed
away from
it. We’ve also looked at my competitive jumps. I like to look at
it.
Recently, Dave [Nielsen, her coach] and I have been having closed practices.
He has a hard time running the camera and seeing what I’m dong on
the
runway. I feel like I know what I need to do, it’s a matter of trusting
it.
Stepping out, getting my hands where they need to be. It’s a matter
of
getting out of my comfort zone and getting to a new level in my training.
Q: Are you the same athlete now as you were in Sydney [2000 Olympics]
and
Edmonton [2001 World Outdoor Championships?
A: I think I’ve improved since Edmonton and Sydney. I think going
against
Svetlana is going to give me confidence this year. Last year it was hard
to
be competing, knowing I wasn’t in good condition. I couldn’t
fight back, and
fighting back is my trademark. I got sick, and then my foot was bothering
me. I never felt like I should have been out there competing. I never
felt
like I was totally confident out there. Two years prior to that, I was
as
confident. In a way, it was good to be injured last year. I needed some
down
time. Now as I came back this fall, I felt great. I got to do a whole
fall
season of great conditioning, great confidence-building. I’m a better
athlete. I’m more physically fit now than I was last year and the
year
before. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten wiser about my training.
I just
feel good. It’s too bad that she’s [Feofanova] not willing
to come over here
to compete against me for one me, and I’m not willing to go over
there and
sacrifice a week of training just to jump once (prior to the World Indoor
Championships).
Q: Is it hard not to get ahead of yourself and start thinking about 2004?
A: I think it was harder going into 2000. I had to hold the excitement
back. I couldn’t believe where I had come from, where I was and
where I was
going. Now I’m more confident in who I am and what I’ve established.
I’m
taking each season on its own – stay healthy, establish the world
record,
bring the best out in myself and my competitors. I haven’t gotten
totally
excited about 2004 yet. I have too much to work on in the next year.
Q: Tell us about your multi-event training.
A: I couldn’t imagine being a pole vaulter every day and only doing
pole
vault every day. But I came from a heptathlon background, and if I didn’t
do
it now, I’d feel I was losing something, losing strength. I think
the ,long
jump hurdles and sprint workouts I do help me in the pole vault. When
I see
our younger girls [at Idaho State, where Dragila is an assistant coach]
do
hurdles and long jump work, their vaulting takes off. At first they are
a
little apprehensive when they come in as recruits. It’s not for
everybody,
but I come from that background. It’s me, and I’m going to
stick with what’s
been good for me.
I think it would be fun to do a decathlon, just to establish it in the
U.S.
I think a lot of women don’t want to do it because they don’t
pole vault,
and they’re not crazy about 1,500 meters at the end of two days.
I think it
just comes down to guts, though.
I did a decathlon after World Indoors in 1997, actually, at Occidental.
I
hadn’t done any discus preparation, but I had this other stuff in
my
background. I thought ‘what the heck.’ It felt like I’d
climbed a mountain I
’d never climbed before. It felt good – well, the 1,500 didn’t
feel good.
But it was something other women in the United States hadn’t done
before. It
really made me feel good. The pole vault opened up at 9 feet. The younger
guys knew I just came back from the World Championships, and they were
terrified.
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