World's best

In winning gold at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Stacy Dragila tied Australian Emma George’s world record of 15 feet, 1 inch. In May 2000, she surpassed George with a vault of 15-1 3/4 at a meet in Phoenix; two months later, Dragila improved her world record to 15-2 1/4 at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. That vault, which marked the 14th time Dragila improved upon the American record, also earned her a berth in the Sydney Games, where women's pole vault makes its Olympic debut. Appropriately, Dragila's dog, a chocolate Labrador Retriever, is named Sydney.

More records

In 1997, Dragila won the first-ever major title awarded in women's pole vault, at the World Indoor Championships in Paris. An upset winner over George, she vaulted 14 feet, 8 1/4 inches, setting what then was the indoor world record. Dragila set the current indoor mark of 15-1 3/4 at the 2000 U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships in Atlanta. In 1994, she cleared 10 feet for the first time. Later, she read in Track & Field News that it was an American record. "When that came out, it pumped me up," she says. With that, her devotion to the event intensified.

First a hurdler, then a heptathlete

Dragila began her athletic career as a 400-meter hurdler, twice qualifying for the California state high school meet. She was recruited to be a heptathlete at Yuba College in California by the late coach, John Orognen. Says Dragila: "I did the long jump. I ran. (Orognen) thought, 'Why not?’ I liked it all, so I stuck with it."

Finally, a pole vaulter

After two years at Yuba, Dragila enrolled at Idaho State, where she began working with coach Dave Nielsen. She wasn't good enough to make it to the national level as a heptathlete, so in 1993 she picked up a pole for the first time. "Dave had a bunch of us heptathletes pick up a stick and try to go over six feet," she recalls. "Then we'd bump it up a little bit. That was our first experience, and I thought, 'What are we doing this for?' I thought this was just dinking around. ... It was scary for me, going upside down and not knowing where I was."

Nicknames

Dragila has been around animals all her life. Her grandfather owned a small ranch in Idaho and raised steer and cattle. Dragila often went horseback riding, and before her track career she competed in rodeo goat-tying competitions (team roping and breakaway roping). Hence her nickname, "The goat roper." Dragila's mother, Irma, often is too nervous to watch her daughter compete. "She just wants me to have fun," says Dragila. Stacy studies tapes of Ukrainian pole vault legend Sergei Bubka, who has set a total of 35 world records (17 outdoor, 18 indoor), and her father, Bill, has dubbed her "Bubka Junior." Dragila works as an assistant coach with the Idaho State track team, focusing on the heptathlon and pole vault. She also likes mountain biking and tennis.