Running faster to jump higher

05-26-2005

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

Tracy O’Hara warmed up for the pole vault, stepping onto the track between races at the recent Mt. San Antonio College Relays. She pumped her knees high as she ran down the inside lane that is adjacent to the pole vault runway.

She looked like a sprinter, which is exactly why the 24-year-old from Rancho Bernardo High has taken up part-time residence at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. The former NCAA champion from UCLA has placed a new emphasis on her sprinting techniques by training with a sprint coach for the first time in her career.

"I'm learning how to run," O'Hara said. "I never had a running coach before I started training in Chula Vista. I've just had a vaulting coach, and the run is 75 percent of your jump."

O'Hara, who competes for Adidas, placed fifth last year in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials that advances the top three finishers to the Olympics. If she’s to make the U.S. team for the World Championships she needs to run faster to jump higher.

Although O”Hara was an NCAA champion and there was a time when America’s Olympians went from NCAA competition to the Olympic arena, now even NCAA champions need more time to develop at the international level. The OTC provides a menu of housing, nutrition, sports medicine, physiology, psychology and world-class facilities for the athlete.

“This is a prime example of how the U.S. Olympic Training Center differs from other training facilities, such as college and university campuses,” said Patrice Milkovich, Director of the OTC in Chula Vista. “It’s an environment where qualified athletes have full priority and access to integrated services intended to assist them.”

O’Hara recently won the pole vault at Mt. SAC in Walnut in April when she cleared 14 feet, 9 ½ inches. Her personal best is 15-0 ½.

"My expectations are a lot higher right now," O'Hara said. "I'm working on a lot of things and it might take a while to jump high, but I feel I have a lot of potential right now."

O'Hara expects her improved speed to allow her to use a bigger pole and bigger poles translate into higher heights In some ways she feels she is backing up her career to her high school days, learning techniques she got away with skipping past because of her prodigious talent. She only competed in track as a senior, but her natural talent earned her the CIF San Diego Section and the CIF state titles that lone varsity season in 1998.

“I recommend learning the basics before going all out,” O’Hara said. “I’ve seen a lot of girls get on a big pole too soon. You have to learn how to pole vault on a short pole and on short runs before you go to the bigger pole and the longer runs. If you don’t know the techniques and you start losing, then it gets in your head and you start to break down. That’s where the Europeans are ahead of us. They learn the basics first.”

One reason O’Hara succeeded so quickly in the pole vault was her gymnastics background.

"I was a gymnast, and gymnasts don't know how to run," she said with a laugh.

In addition to her high school success, she won three NCAA titles at UCLA --- outdoor crowns in 2000 and 2002 and an indoor title in 2000.

Moving up at least two spots to make the U.S. team fo the World Championships in August in Helsinki or the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing remains a goal, but she said it's not her focus at this point in her career.

"I'm taking my goal step by step," O'Hara said. "You can't base all your training on an event that happens once every four years. That can't be all you train for."

She said she once read pole vaulters hit their peak at age 27 and nine months. In three years, an Olympic year, she'll turn 27.

I'm right on track," she said with a laugh.