Jill Geer of USATF wrote this superb blog on Chelsea Johnson, and I thought that you might enjoy it.
Chelsea Johnson winning her silver medal, photo by PhotoRun.net.
I have had the privilege of watching Chelsea vault in high school, college and now, on the global level. It is also about good karma. Chelsea has endured the frustrations that come along with the pole vault and also living with the challenge of a parent who is an Olympian and medalist in the same event. Jan Johnson, her father, has been one of our supporters at American Track & Field since we first started in 1989. He is a great friend. (He allowed us to do Howard Goes to Camp, and Howard Goes to Camp, 2, where I put a male and female athlete, never a vaulter and got them to go to vault camp).
On Monday night, it was all about Chelsea Johnson, the newest medalist in the Johnson family, with a silver in the women’s pole vault. Congrats Chelsea! And thanks again to Jill Geer for writing such a nice column!
Chelsea Johnson makes a name for herself
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
BERLIN – Here at Olympic Stadium, various strains of popular, techno and heavy-metal music play over the loudspeakers for a few seconds at a time, to fill voids just before and after competition or to set a mood.
For the women’s pole vault competition Monday night, I kept expecting to hear the Ting Ting’s song “That’s Not My Name” when Chelsea Johnson hit the runway.
At every international championship event, Team USA athletes take part in informational meetings and team-building activities prior to the start of competition. At the Team USA meeting on August 13, athletes engaged in an exercise that involved them chatting with teammates they didn’t otherwise know, learning something about them, and then introducing that person to the rest of the team. It’s an ice-breaker that often results in hilarity. The introduction of a discus thrower by a 400-meter runner may prove to be the most memorable off-track moment of these championships, but that’s for another blog.
The athlete introducing Chelsea Johnson, who in this blog shall mercifully remain nameless, enthusiastically introduced her to the team as Lacy Janson. Um, right event, but the wrong person.
Although followers of American vaulting are very familiar with Chelsea, casual track fans who don’t follow the vault might not have known her name prior to Monday night. Her father’s name, Jan Johnson, has been in the vaulting world for decades. The 1972 Olympic bronze medalist in the men’s pole vault, Jan Johnson owns and operates SkyJumpers Vertical Sports Club, runs camps around the country and is the nation’s top expert in pole vault safety.
Chelsea first made a name for herself as a vaulter at UCLA, where she won the 2004 NCAA outdoor title, the 2006 indoor crown and broke the collegiate record (4.60m/15-1). Despite her collegiate success, Berlin marked the first time she had competed for Team USA at a World Championships or Olympic Games. First-timers in events as unforgiving as the vault often have to chalk up their first Worlds competition to experience, rather than aiming for the medal stand.
But the vault isn’t unforgiving only to international-team neophytes. On Monday night, the female equivalent of Usain Bolt (read: “unbeatable”), Russian Yelena Isinbayeva, no-heighted. It’s hard to say who was more stunned – the fans, the press, or Isinbayeva herself. She hasn’t been full strength this year and already was beaten once, but to fail to make even a single height is something the world hasn’t seen, and didn’t expect to see, from the bionic woman of the vault. Indeed, the always engaging and effusive Isinbayeva left the track in tears.
While the world record holder was in the spotlight going three-and-out, Johnson was winning the first medal in a World Championship women’s pole vault that doesn’t have Stacy Dragila’s name on it. It is somehow fitting that in Dragila’s last meet as a Team USA athlete – she is retiring at the end of this year – Johnson provided a medal few expected.
The pole vault is an unpredictable event, which is one of the things that makes it so exciting. Have an untimely injury or bad timing on a particular night, and you can go from champ to chump. For Johnson, it was her time to be a champ.
At future team meetings, Chelsea Johnson’s introductions will not only include her correct name, but also the words “World Championships silver medalist.”
Pretty memorable stuff.
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