Sport - Athletics

Dragila ready to scale new heights

PHOENIX, MAY 1. The pioneer of women's pole vaulting is back with a new style, and ready to reach new heights.

At 33, Stacy Dragila has the event's only Olympic gold medal, three world championships and 17 U.S. titles. She has held the World Record, indoors and outdoors, numerous times.

Yet she knew to stay at the top in world competition, she had to overhaul her technique, a radical move few athletes would attempt so late in their careers.

"To get up at age 30 and change all that is extremely difficult," her coach, Greg Hull, said. "She's tried her hardest. Somewhere in the last three months she's come around to appreciating what we're trying to do."

Dragila has not, however, been the easiest of pupils. "He probably felt like he was coaching a 10th grader instead of an elite athlete," she said. "It was like `I've done things for 10 years in certain ways and now you're asking me to change?'''

Dragila first flirted with the pole vault when she was a heptathlete at Idaho State University, and throughout her domination of the event in its formative years she remained in Pocatello working with college coach Dave Nielsen.

"I'd been up in Idaho for 10 years," she said. "I kind of felt like the last year or two I lacked a spark, whether it was not being with a training partner, or the weather. It's just nice to switch to a new scene."

Hull is a friend of Nielsen, and had taken over for him with Dragila when the Idaho State coach was unable to travel to major competitions because of his collegiate commitments. So he was a natural choice as a new full-time coach. — AP

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