Ex-Lake Forest star hits heights

Philip Hersh, Tribune Olympic sports reporter

Jul 23, 2004

ATHENS OLYMPICS.

Jillian Schwartz's mother learned via telephone Sunday that her daughter had made the Olympic team in Sacramento.

The odd thing was that mom was getting the information secondhand even though she stood barely 100 yards from where Jillian was competing for a place in Athens.

Problem is, Linda Schwartz can't bear to watch her daughter drop to the ground from 15 feet in the air--or 14 feet 11 inches, the height that gave her second place at the U.S. Olympic trials.

"It's scary," said Linda, a Lake Forest real estate agent.

Now Linda is scrambling to find hotel accommodations so she and her husband, Joseph, can be in the stadium when Jillian tries to take her pole-vaulting career to the next level.

"I'll peek sometimes," Linda said, building her courage.

Jillian, an All-State track athlete at Lake Forest High School, wanted to try the vault almost from the time she first saw it.

"There are so many factors involved it makes it a lot more fun than just flat-out running or jumping," Schwartz said. "And I guess there always is a little--I don't want to say fear, but it gets your adrenaline going to be that high in the air."

Her pole vault debut was postponed until college because Illinois high school girls were not allowed to vault until after she graduated in 1997. The event made its debut at the state meet in 2001.

Of her first vault, Jillian Schwartz recalled little: "I guess it didn't really scare me, or I'd remember it."

Linda Schwartz describes her daughter, 24, as a cautious person who tries things only after being taught them properly first.

That is why Jillian never has thought about wearing a helmet as she ascended to the world elite in the vault, even if her parents have asked why she doesn't.

At least three people died from vaulting accidents in 2002. Many Illinois high school vaulters use helmets, although they are not mandatory.

Schwartz's Olympic teammate Toby Stevenson has become the world's leading male vaulter this season while wearing a modified rollerblade helmet that has become his trademark.

Schwartz, the world's seventh-ranked vaulter this season, is vaulting twice as high as she did when she cleared 7-6 inches in her first competition, which was her freshman year at Duke. She doesn't think that has upped the danger.

"I have never had a helmet on, not even in practice," she said. "I land in the middle of the pit 99.9 percent of the time. Sure, there are freak accidents, but I think most of the problems come from kids not learning to pole-vault correctly."

Jillian Schwartz thinks awareness of body position in the air learned from 14 years as a gymnast helped her become a top vaulter in a relatively short period of time as well as reduce any initial fears about trying the event.

The world's top two vaulters this year, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva, both started as gymnasts, with Feofanova winning Russian gymnastics titles in her early 20s before switching to track and field. Three weeks ago, Feofanova became the first woman to clear 16 feet, her jump of 16-0 raising Isinbayeva's week-old record a quarter-inch.

But Schwartz's coach, 1984 Olympic bronze medalist Earl Bell, disagrees with the often-conventional wisdom about the transfer of gymnastics skills to vaulting. Bell, a former world record-holder, coaches three of the six vaulters on the 2004 Olympic team at his training center in Jonesboro, Ark.

"It's a different mentality in gymnastics, across the board," Bell said. "People who watch the pole vault focus on them flying through the air, like a gymnast, but the pole vault is about running fast and planting the pole.

"Gymnastics is horrible for running, and there is something funny about the [overemotional] way gymnasts handle failure. In the pole vault, if you can't handle failure, you won't be in the sport long."

Schwartz may be different, her mother said, because she almost never finished first or second in gymnastics as a preteen, yet kept going in the sport.

"You need that attitude of, 'I'll do better next time,' in any sport, but especially the pole vault," Bell said.

Schwartz had surprised herself by qualifying for the U.S. trials in 2000, the year women's vaulting made its Olympic debut. She failed to clear the opening height, even though it was 2 1/2 inches below her personal best at the time.

"I was just there for the experience, pretty much," she said.

Her progression began to accelerate when she moved to Jonesboro after graduating from Duke with an economics degree in 2001.

She had done a pole vault camp with Bell the previous winter and was impressed with his ability to teach technique, her biggest weakness at the time. The low cost of living in Arkansas meant Schwartz could afford to train while working only occasional part- time jobs.

Her personal best improved a foot in the first year with Bell, then leveled off before improving another 4 inches this year. She needs to jump at least 6 inches higher to compete consistently with the Russians and U.S. teammate Stacy Dragila, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, who won the trials at 15-7.

"It's not something that happens quickly," Schwartz said. "But I think it's definitely there."

By reaching her personal best of 15-1 for the first of three times in 2004, Schwartz finished fourth in March at the World Indoor Championships. She was beaten by the big three: Isinbayeva won with a world record 15-11 1/4, followed by Dragila (indoor U.S. record 15- 9 1/4) and Feofanova (15-5).

"The first thing you notice about an athlete is talent and potential, but Jill's ability to stay calm is her big advantage," Bell said. "More than 50 percent of vaulters at the trials were their own worst enemies because of nerves."

Bell thinks Schwartz is ready to jump between 15-3 and 15-5 if she can overcome nagging injuries to her takeoff [right] foot. Once she was certain of making the Olympic team with a top-three finish at the trials, Schwartz passed a chance to vault higher rather than risk further injury.

A vault of 15-5 would make Schwartz an Olympic medal contender in track and field's least predictable event--one where Ukraine's Sergey Bubka recorded what remain the 23 highest vaults in history from 1988 through 1997 but won only a single medal in three Olympics during that span, gold in 1988.

"I'm definitely ready to keep getting personal bests," Schwartz said. "I think it will take me jumping higher than I have before to get a medal, but I think it's definitely possible."