Becky Holliday Newspaper Article
http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/displ ... 38fba659e9
Holliday's season continues in Paris
Oregon record holder Becky Holliday prepares herself for the biggest track and field meet of her life in the 2003 World Championships next week
Jesse Thomas
Sports Editor
August 20, 2003
Breaking the NCAA meet record, becoming an NCAA champion and besting her own school record this past season still weren't enough to leave Oregon's Becky Holliday with a comfortable feeling heading into the biggest track and field meet of her life.
Holliday, who finished her athletic career at Oregon with an astounding pole vault season on the track and field team by becoming the school's first individual women's NCAA champion in seven years, is heading to Paris, France, today to face off with the best.
World record holder Stacy Dragila, 2002 U.S. Indoor Champion Mary Sauer, 2003 USA Nationals runner-up Jillian Schwartz and Holliday will represent the United States in the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Athletics women's pole vault competition Aug. 22 through 31.
"I'm excited about Paris because it's Paris," Holliday said. "I really want to do well, it's going to be hard though. It's just been a long season because it had this two month extension on it."
Holliday's season has indeed been long. Her redshirt senior season with the Ducks began in early March and she has continued all the way through August, much longer than any of the other traveling vaulters whose seasons began in June.
Holliday took a break after the USA Championships in June, where she tied for third with Sauer, vaulting 14 feet 3 and 1/4 inches. Holliday suffered a back injury after the USA Championships, forcing her to pull out of the Pan American Games on Aug. 5, however.
The Sparks, Nev., native owns a personal best of 14-8, which she jumped last season to break her own school record. But with this season as long as it is, she is worried whether or not her peak is behind her.
"It's so hard to keep that peak that you go into as far as championship phase of NCAAs and regionals and that stand, and then try and keep it going two months longer," Holliday said.
Having to work out by herself at Hayward field and having to push back training due to injury have all taxed her physically. But when it comes down to it, Holliday faces a battle that's more mental than physical.
"It's better to go into a meet sometimes to have your mind just fresh from track rather than be mentally drained," she said. "To be a little bit rusty and still be mentally fresh (is better) than to go in top shape and be mentally drained.
"It is (a mental battle) but it's a good experience because I never know where my season is going to go and I'm going to learn from it."
And if the mental aspect wasn't enough to deal with, the pressure of the world's largest track meet has been mounting as well. Holliday said the USA Track and Field News predicted she'd finish 10th at the World Championships. Schwartz and Sauer were placed nowhere higher than her.
How does that make her feel?
"A little bit of pressure -- a little bit," Holliday said, with an air of understatement.
Yet in prepping for her first world competition, Holliday is trying to stay grounded and be reasonable. It's only her second time competing abroad after traveling to Beijing, China, in 2001 for the World University Games.
"My goal is to make it out of prelims," Holliday said. "I think if I do that, then I can handle a little bit of the pressure going into a world class meet like that."
Holliday arrives in Paris on Thursday morning where she will have two days to adjust to the time difference and the culture. She will compete Saturday in the qualification round of the women's pole vault at 4:40 p.m., Paris time.
And after it's all over?
Holliday plans to take a minimum of three months off before beginning next season's surge. The 23-year-old plans to train and be ready for the season beginning in June 2004 when she will be on the same competition schedule as Sauer, Dragila and Schwartz. She also plans to compete at the 2004 Olympic Trials in July.
But before the big time, Holliday is focused on setting her mind straight after a long physical season, and to do her best at the World Championships.
"I'm trying to go in with a good frame of mind -- 'No pressure, don't be nervous, it doesn't matter how I do' -- but after I'm done, if I do poorly I'm going to be so mad at myself," Holliday said. "So I'm trying to still keep it going."
What a great year (both indoor and outdoor) she is having!! 
Sure enjoyed watching her compete in that barnburner of a PV competition in Fayetteville for the NCAA D1 Indoor championship.
