NEW YORK -- At first, Stacy Dragila thought the pole vault
was kind of an odd idea. Think about it. First you run at top
speed, carrying that long, flexible pole. Then you plant it and
hurtle yourself into the air and over a bar 10, 11, 12 feet high.
Yup, Dragila decided, this is just plain goofy.
But then, the whole idea of a Californian going to college in
Pocatello, Idaho, seemed strange, too. So when Idaho State track
coach Dave Nielsen suggested that Dragila, a heptathlete, try the
pole vault, she figured she'd give it a shot.
"I was terrified," she said. "I had no gymnastic background
and that's something you need. That -- and strength."
Dragila, who received the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman
of the Year Award on Monday, had come to Idaho State because she
thought it would be good for her asthma.
"I figured the fresh air, the mountains, it was a chance to
experience something different," she said.
Dragila hadn't counted on Nielsen coming up with this idea.
"I knew this was an event dominated by men," Dragila said. "I
figured it was not our place to do it. I'm not an activist. There
were some women in Europe trying it, Germans, Russians, French, but
it never took off."
Nielsen kept pressing the issue, though, convincing her this
could be fun. His wife was a gymnastics coach, so that helped.
Together they convinced Dragila, a 23-year-old redshirt junior on
the Idaho State team, to give it a shot.
"He showed me a magazine," she said. "He said, `They're at 10
feet. You can do that.' I thought that was pretty high."
Dragila vaulted an American indoor record 10 feet in 1994.
"Then it was, `Let's try 11,"' she said. "After that, the bar
just kept going up."
She won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport last year
and then set an indoor world record at the Millrose Games with a
leap of 15 feet, 2¼ inches. She upped that to 15-5 at the World
Indoor Championships and pushed her outdoor record to 15-5½ and
then 15-9¼.
In August, she won her second straight world championship and
fifth national outdoor title. She owns six straight national indoor
golds, a Goodwill Games gold, first place in the IAAF Grand Prix
final and has won 22 of 25 competitions this year.
And now, women's pole vaulting is part of the mainstream of
track and field.
"It's helped our sport," she said. "It's a groundbreaking
event. People are interested in what women can do. It's a new
flavor out there. It's a changing environment, a changing world.
"I feel like I'm living a dream. Everything is so surreal.
Critics said women couldn't do that, couldn't do 14 feet. Now it's
15 and 16 feet, and you wonder, 'What can women really do?"'
One day, she'll probably find out.
Also receiving a Sportswoman of the Year Award on Monday was
Lisa Leslie of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.
The Women's Sports Foundation inducted four athletes into its
Hall of Fame on Monday: speed skater Bonnie Blair, swimmer Janet
Evans, gymnast Agnes Keleti-Biro and Mabel Fairbanks, a pioneering
black figure skater and coach who died Sept. 29.
Also honored was retiring soccer player Michelle Akers, a member
of two World Cup championship teams, and the LPGA for its support
of women's sports.
Julie Foudy, president of the Foundation, said many of the 80
athletes attending the awards ceremony had spent the weekend in New
York, where they visited the site of the World Trade Center.
"We dedicate this event to the rescue workers and all those we
lost in this tragedy," Foudy said.