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Olympics Blog

Pole vault pioneer can still jump

By Helene Elliott
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Stacy Dragila, winner of the first women’s pole vault Olympic gold medal at Sydney in 2000, has faded into the background while younger women emerged, including American record holder Jenn Stuczynski.

But Dragila, finally fit and healthy after several years of frustration and injuries, made it out of the qualifying round tonight with a jump of 14 feet, 1-1/4 inches. Stuczynski advanced at the same height; Tori Anthony of UCLA and former Bruin Tracy O’Hara also advanced, but Ingrid Kantola did not.

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‘It was fun to be out there and do things on the first attempt,’ Dragila said. ‘It saves my body.

‘It’s a nice feeling to kind of be a player again.’

-- Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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