Australia’s Emma George, one of the pioneers of women's pole vaulting, was forced into premature retirement yesterday due to a chronic back injury.

A former children's circus performer from rural Victoria, George set 12 World records outdoors and another 5 indoors in her distinguished career. Her last World record of 4.60m which she established in Sydney in February 1999 remains the Australian national record.

The 29-year-old marketing consultant who now lives in Perth, injured her back in a training accident shortly before the 1999 Seville World Championships.

Although she recovered to win her fourth Australian championship in early 2000, back problems plagued her and she failed to reach the Sydney Olympic final in which, of course, a leap of 4.60m won the gold medal for her friend Stacy Dragila of the USA.

Nevertheless George was a trailblazer, winning gold in the inaugural women's pole vault at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. She also won the World University Games in '97, and she participated in the inaugural Olympic women's vault in 2000.

After finishing eighth in her Olympic pool and missing the final, George had surgery for two stress fractures in her feet.

Her back problem required surgery on the protruding discs between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae (L4-L5) and the fifth lumbar and first sacrum vertebrae (L5-S1).

Ken Maguire of Perth Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre said further stress on her body could cause long-term problems. “Emma's vertebra has been compressed from past surgery, which removed pieces of disc that were placing pressure on the spinal chord,” he said. “Any further damage to her back would require major surgery to fuse the three lower discs.''

George was philosophical about the sudden curtailing of her career. "I was looking and feeling fantastic, but my back just couldn't handle the pressure of training.”

"I was really hoping to jump in Athens, even off a shortened 12-step approach to take the pressure off my back. But the best I could hope for was 4.60m or 4.55m and that wasn't really going to be good enough.

"And the risk was too great. I've had surgery twice on my back. Another injury and it would have meant fusing the vertebrae.

"But I'm not lost to the sport. I'm just lost to pole vaulting.

"I've got a year to go before I complete a Masters in Journalism degree. It's wonderful that I've found a new passion. I want to be a sportswriter."