Just as high as I can go – Dragila aims for 5 metres
By IAAF Correspondent
27 June 2001 – London – Stacy Dragila has her eyes set on breaking the
five metres mark for the women’s pole vault - and with it the type of legendary
status she would like to achieve.
Not that being an Olympic champion does not assure of her a place in the history books.
But Dragila, who competes at the season’s first Golden League meeting of the season in Rome on Friday, knows when the day arrives that she retires, she wants to be fulfilled.
“I want to go down in history believing that I jumped to my capability,” she said today. “That means every time I begin a competition, I want to try and take the bar as high as I can. Not just by a centimetre every time.
“I am sure there will be a time when we will move to five metres, it will be a big mark but you never know how far you can go unless you keep trying.”
American Dragila was one of the stars of the Olympic Games in Sydney when she took gold, she has now improved her world record to 4.81 metres and the next target is 4.88m. “I want to get up to around 16 feet and then move on from there,” she said.
Dragila is fast taking a grip of this event in the way multiple world champion Sergei Bubka used to dominate the men’s event. She will go to August’s World Championships in Edmonton after a careful run-up of competitions, which start on Friday, move to Crete at the weekend before she returns home to California. Then she will head back to Europe for Grand Prix meetings in London and Stockholm.
Speaking at a press conference in London yesterday, she said: “After the Olympic season being so hectic, it has been good to pick and choose this year, giving me more time for training.”
Dragila is the defending world champion but her closest rivals from Sydney, Tatyana Grigorieva of Australia and Iceland’s Vala Flosadottir will be looking to beat her in Edmonton.
Yet Dragila thrives the tougher the competition is. “With three or four women now capable of getting good heights, it pushes everyone to improve and helps provide the drive for me in training.” The former high school rodeo champion has been enjoying life since the Olympics.
“I am recognised now when I go shopping which is quite strange,” she added. ”But the good thing is that so many people come up to me and say how they saw me on television and how it has been inspirational.
“If what I have done can lead youngsters into the sport, then it can only be for the good.”
Trained as a heptathlete, she took up the pole vault full-time in the early Nineties when her coach read on the Internet about competitions taking place in Europe.
The women’s event was in its early stages but Dragila said: “I was up for the challenge, I tried it out and it has just progressed from there.”
Next stop the Golden Gala in Rome and another world record? Do not bet against it.
