SDSU's Bagan conquers fear, heights en route to Trials
Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:10 pm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/ca ... anepa.html
SDSU's Bagan conquers fear, heights en route to U.S. Olympic track trials
UNION-TRIBUNE
June 28, 2008
You don't have to jump back many leap years to find a time when the pole vault only separated the men from the boys. Great male athletes shunned the decathlon because it included the event. It takes intensive training and coaching. Poles snap. People get hurt, or even worse. You go up in the sky, launched by this delicate device, and land on an overstuffed mattress – if you're lucky.
But now it doesn't even separate the men from the women. The distaff side of the sport has taken to the pole vault, many of them overcoming their fear more readily and easily than their male counterparts – who, after all, don't know what it's like to give birth.
I never quite have understood pole vaulters, lugging those things around and catapulting themselves into parts unknown. It takes talent. It takes spine. Me, I like the ground, especially when there's a chair on it.
“It was a little scary at first, but it wasn't really that bad,” says San Diego State sophomore vaulter Stephanie Bagan, headed for the U.S. Olympic Trials next week. “Last year I broke my pole and bruised my arm. That, I guess, was pretty scary.”
And yet that horse still was there to climb up on. There is a lure to this. Maybe it's about flying without wings.
They say the first thing a batter has to overcome is a fear of the baseball. For pole vaulters, it's more. There's heights, falling off a two-story building. Thanks to technology, poles have come a long way from their bamboo days, but why trust them?
And there's the unknown. There can be concrete around the pit. Concrete, as a rule, is unforgiving. Poles have been known to break, which eliminates all control. There can be awkward landings.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina lists vaulting as the most dangerous athletic activity, and that includes football and cheerleading (which, believe it or not, is very dangerous). Between 1983 and 2004, there were 16 vault-related deaths in this country. Just this year, there were three male vaulting fatalities – one a collegian, two high schoolers – in a two-week span.
And yet, women continue to embrace the pole vault, and their activity wasn't even recognized by track and field's governing body until 1992 and didn't qualify as an Olympic event until 2000. They're getting real good at it, too.
“Some of them are amazing,” admits Bagan, who isn't too bad herself.
Four women with San Diego ties – Bagan, 2000 Olympic champion Stacy Dragila, Tracy O'Hara and Mary Vincent – will make their way to Eugene, Ore., attempting to earn a spot in the Beijing Olympics.
Bagan, the Mountain West Conference indoor and outdoor track athlete of the year, scholar athlete of the year and an All-American, probably won't make it this time, but she has a future. She's 19, and yet her personal best of 14 feet, 3½ inches set this year ranks her 12th among U.S. vaulters competing in Eugene. She was runner-up in the NCAA Championships. She cleared the winning height but didn't get the gold because of one miss.
Think this thing has come a long way? China's Sun Caiyun vaulted 13-3½ to establish the first official women's world mark in 1992. Now 16 feet isn't a problem.
When I first arrived at San Diego High in the early 1960s, the school's pole vault record was a bit over 13 feet, established by Bill Miller. Miller went on to win the Olympic gold medal – in 1932!
Of course, Miller didn't have the technology, training or medical advice available today. He basically was a golfer using a club with a wooden shaft. But even technology doesn't ensure greatness in the sport. Many modern vaulters have gymnastics backgrounds.
“I do,” says Bagan, who came to State out of Granite Bay High, east of Sacramento. “I quit gymnastics before the seventh grade. I turned to cheerleading and soccer. I found that, when I got into pole vaulting, I got better every year. First I went 9-6, then 10-6. Oh, it started to get scary. Then 11 and then 13. So scary. I thought girls jumping 10 feet were so good. It's such a tough sport, putting in 20 hours a week. It's brutal.
“But I've been consistently blessed. I haven't plateaued. I've increased about six inches a year. I've continually improved. I'm looking for 15 feet next year.”
Stephanie became so good that she eventually was offered a scholarship out of high school, and the kinesiology major has taken advantage of the ride on the track and in the classroom. Why San Diego State?
“I was recruited by Utah and New Mexico, but I wanted to stay in California if I could,” she says. “I came on a recruiting trip here and had a lot of fun. I knew Shayla Valentine had gotten second in the NCAAs. If they had a 14-foot jumper, their coach (Rich Fox) had to know what he was doing.”
So what do we say now about Stephanie Bagan? The sky's the limit?
“I hope to make the 2012 Olympic team.”
It may be dangerous up there, but that's the limit.
SDSU's Bagan conquers fear, heights en route to U.S. Olympic track trials
UNION-TRIBUNE
June 28, 2008
You don't have to jump back many leap years to find a time when the pole vault only separated the men from the boys. Great male athletes shunned the decathlon because it included the event. It takes intensive training and coaching. Poles snap. People get hurt, or even worse. You go up in the sky, launched by this delicate device, and land on an overstuffed mattress – if you're lucky.
But now it doesn't even separate the men from the women. The distaff side of the sport has taken to the pole vault, many of them overcoming their fear more readily and easily than their male counterparts – who, after all, don't know what it's like to give birth.
I never quite have understood pole vaulters, lugging those things around and catapulting themselves into parts unknown. It takes talent. It takes spine. Me, I like the ground, especially when there's a chair on it.
“It was a little scary at first, but it wasn't really that bad,” says San Diego State sophomore vaulter Stephanie Bagan, headed for the U.S. Olympic Trials next week. “Last year I broke my pole and bruised my arm. That, I guess, was pretty scary.”
And yet that horse still was there to climb up on. There is a lure to this. Maybe it's about flying without wings.
They say the first thing a batter has to overcome is a fear of the baseball. For pole vaulters, it's more. There's heights, falling off a two-story building. Thanks to technology, poles have come a long way from their bamboo days, but why trust them?
And there's the unknown. There can be concrete around the pit. Concrete, as a rule, is unforgiving. Poles have been known to break, which eliminates all control. There can be awkward landings.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina lists vaulting as the most dangerous athletic activity, and that includes football and cheerleading (which, believe it or not, is very dangerous). Between 1983 and 2004, there were 16 vault-related deaths in this country. Just this year, there were three male vaulting fatalities – one a collegian, two high schoolers – in a two-week span.
And yet, women continue to embrace the pole vault, and their activity wasn't even recognized by track and field's governing body until 1992 and didn't qualify as an Olympic event until 2000. They're getting real good at it, too.
“Some of them are amazing,” admits Bagan, who isn't too bad herself.
Four women with San Diego ties – Bagan, 2000 Olympic champion Stacy Dragila, Tracy O'Hara and Mary Vincent – will make their way to Eugene, Ore., attempting to earn a spot in the Beijing Olympics.
Bagan, the Mountain West Conference indoor and outdoor track athlete of the year, scholar athlete of the year and an All-American, probably won't make it this time, but she has a future. She's 19, and yet her personal best of 14 feet, 3½ inches set this year ranks her 12th among U.S. vaulters competing in Eugene. She was runner-up in the NCAA Championships. She cleared the winning height but didn't get the gold because of one miss.
Think this thing has come a long way? China's Sun Caiyun vaulted 13-3½ to establish the first official women's world mark in 1992. Now 16 feet isn't a problem.
When I first arrived at San Diego High in the early 1960s, the school's pole vault record was a bit over 13 feet, established by Bill Miller. Miller went on to win the Olympic gold medal – in 1932!
Of course, Miller didn't have the technology, training or medical advice available today. He basically was a golfer using a club with a wooden shaft. But even technology doesn't ensure greatness in the sport. Many modern vaulters have gymnastics backgrounds.
“I do,” says Bagan, who came to State out of Granite Bay High, east of Sacramento. “I quit gymnastics before the seventh grade. I turned to cheerleading and soccer. I found that, when I got into pole vaulting, I got better every year. First I went 9-6, then 10-6. Oh, it started to get scary. Then 11 and then 13. So scary. I thought girls jumping 10 feet were so good. It's such a tough sport, putting in 20 hours a week. It's brutal.
“But I've been consistently blessed. I haven't plateaued. I've increased about six inches a year. I've continually improved. I'm looking for 15 feet next year.”
Stephanie became so good that she eventually was offered a scholarship out of high school, and the kinesiology major has taken advantage of the ride on the track and in the classroom. Why San Diego State?
“I was recruited by Utah and New Mexico, but I wanted to stay in California if I could,” she says. “I came on a recruiting trip here and had a lot of fun. I knew Shayla Valentine had gotten second in the NCAAs. If they had a 14-foot jumper, their coach (Rich Fox) had to know what he was doing.”
So what do we say now about Stephanie Bagan? The sky's the limit?
“I hope to make the 2012 Olympic team.”
It may be dangerous up there, but that's the limit.