Down-To-Earth Vaulters Make Elite Event Even More Special

[polevaultpower]

http://www.yankton.net/stories/011908/s ... 4690.shtml

In an impromptu meeting with the boss Friday, I was asked how things were going. I talked about my morning, which consisted of a press event with the competitors in today's Derek Miles and Friends Pole Vault Competition, mentioning that I had talked to four former Olympians and joked, "You know, a normal Friday."

Here's the crazy thing: It really was "normal."

[tafnut]

I'm sorry, but elite pole vaulters, male or female, are so far, far removed from 'normal', that they might as well be another species. What they can do with just a fiberglass pole continues to boggle my imagination after almost 40 years watching them (fiberglass jumpers - the steel guys were just ANIMALS!).

[pbb5652]

I was a discus thrower on the track team at Arkansas State and talking to multiple Olympians in the pole vault was pretty common. I stayed out at Earl Bells training center once over Christmas break when the dorms were closed and I'd wake up and Earl would be up there cooking us breakfast, and I thought it was pretty amazing that here a former Olympian and World record holder was cooking me bacon and eggs.

[tafnut]

a former Olympian and World record holder [in the Pole Vault] was cooking me bacon and eggs.

gives a whole new meaning to 'over easy'.