| 2000 Olympic gold medalist; 1999 World Champion; 1997 World Indoor champion; 4-time U.S. Outdoor champion ('96, '97, '99, '00;) 6-time U.S. Indoor champion ('96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01); 2000 Jesse Owens Award winner
The first and only women's pole vault world champion, Dragila won the first-ever women's Olympic pole vault in 2000. Following a World Record jump to win the Olympic Trials, she proved that she was ready for the challenge, withstanding heated competition from Australian Tatiana Grigorieva and Vala Flosadottir of Iceland... landed on the cover of Wheaties box shortly after. Under her maiden name of Mikaelson, Dragila competed twice in the California state HS meet in the hurdles and placed 2nd in the 1990 Golden West meet in the 400mH (63.70). The late coach John Orognen recruited her to Yuba College and trained her for the heptathlon. As a junior at Idaho State, Dragila and the rest of the women heptathletes were told by coach Nielsen to try to vault over 6 feet...the learning process took a while. Says Dragila, 'The first couple trillion times trying to go over the bar were pretty frightening for me.'
She graduated from Idaho State with a degree in physical education/health education, and is now pursuing a masters degree in health education. She also works as an assistant coach with the Idaho State track team, concentrating on the vault and the heptathlon...active with Big Brothers/Big Sisters...underwent surgery in late September 1998 to repair the fractured navicular bone in her foot. Became the first woman to ever win the world indoor championship in the pole vault in 1997, equaling the world record of 14-5.75. In 1999 at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Seville, Dragila became the first woman ever to win pole vault outdoor title by equaling the world record of 15-1. In 2000, Dragila broke the American record four times, and the world indoor record on three occasions. She broke the world record twice at home in Pocatello on Feb. 19, first clearing 15-0 and then 15-1.5. She also captured a $50,000 bonus from USA Track & Field at the USA Indoor Championships by raising the world record to 4.62m (15-1.75). She won her 5th USA Indoor title in the process... has interest in competing in the decathlon. |
USA