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Bubba

OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: Hartwig clearing age-old obstacles
By Bob Holt

Thursday, August 7, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — Sixth in a series previewing athletes with Arkansas connections who will be competing in the Olympic Games, starting Friday in Beijing

Jeff Hartwig has pole vaulted in 29 countries. On Aug. 20, he’ll make it 30.

That’s when Hartwig, a former Arkansas State athlete, will compete in the pole vault qualifying rounds for the United States team at the Olympics in Beijing.

The pole vault final is Aug. 22.

“I’ve never been to China. That’s one of the reasons I’m soexcited to go,” Hartwig said before leaving for Beijing Tuesday. “One great side benefit of doing what I do is I have been able to travel all around the world and see many interesting places.”

Hartwig, 40, is the oldest pole vaulter to compete for the United States at an Olympics. He is going to the Olympics for the second time - the first time since 1996 - after failing to clear a bar at the 2000 and 2004 U.S. trials.

Hartwig cleared 18 feet, 8 1 /4 inches to take second at this year’s trials in Eugene, Ore.

“I guess the old cliche that age is a state of mind really does ring through,” said Hartwig, a six-time U.S. champion and former American record holder at 19-9 1 /4, which he cleared in 2000. “For me, it’s just another year in my career, although I am very proud of the fact that I have been able to accomplish what I have at my age.

“I hope it gives people inspiration to not give up on their dreams just because of a number.”

Only three vaulters remained in the trials competition and were assured of making the U.S. team - Derek Miles, Hartwig and Brad Walker - after Russ Buller tweaked a hamstring injury and missed on his final attempt at 18-6 1 /2.

“I was talking to Jeff, because I congratulated him, and he came up and said, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Buller told the Oregonian of Portland. “I said, ‘Man, you deserve it. You’re making history.’ ”

Hartwig’s wife, Karol, watched her husband make history from the stands of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

She cried when she realized he had made the U.S. team after the disappointments of 2000 and 2004.

“There have been a lot of ups and a lot of downs,” she told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But he’s been so determined and he just openly said, ‘I’m going to try to do it again.’

“The downs are the hard part, but we always seem to make it through the downs, too. That’s part of why he’s at the level he is at. The downs push him harder to go back up.

“He’s great at coming through those hard times.”

Americans won the first 16 Olympic pole-vaulting gold medals - from 1896, when William Hoyt cleared 10-10, until Bob Seagren cleared 17-8 1 /2 in 1968. After missing the gold in seven consecutive Games, the U.S. has won the past two with Nick Hysong in 2000 and Tim Mack in 2004.

American Brad Walker hasthe best vault in the world this year, clearing a U.S. record 19-9 3 /4. The battle for the gold medal is expected to be between Walker, Russian Yevgenly Lukyanenko and Steve Hooker of Australia.

Hartwig is not among the top 20 in the 2008 world rankings.

But Hartwig said his strategy for the Olympics will be the same as it was at the trials - make the final, then go for it and see what happens.

“I don’t really feel a lot of pressure,” he said. “I don’t think people have a lot of expectations for me. But I’m certainly not going to sell myself short and say, ‘Oh, I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted just to get to Beijing.’

“I’m very motivated and focused to go there and give it everything I’ve got to be successful because a lot of people have stuck by me and continued to support and encourage me.”

Hartwig has lived in Jonesboro since he began attending Arkansas State in 1989, but recently moved back to his native St. Charles, Mo., with his wife and their daughter, Heidi Kay.

“Moving is bittersweet,” he said. “I am looking forward to moving back closer to family, but I will sincerely miss Arkansas and all the wonderful people who I have gotten to know and become close with.

“I think Arkansas is a great place to live, and I’m proud to say that I’m an Arkansan.”

Hartwig said before the U.S. trials he planned to retire from vaulting at the end of this outdoor season, and that hasn’t changed.

“Making the team has actually made it a little easier to stick to my plan because this is the cherry on the top of the end of my career,” he said. “I can’t think of a better way to go out on my own terms than after making the Olympic team.

“It makes me feel good about everything that’s happened, and it seems like the right time to take the opportunity to move on.”

Hartwig’s last scheduled event is Sept. 24 - the day before his 41st birthday - in Aachen, Germany. After that, his next career move isn’t certain. He’s considering becoming a coach or agent for vaulters as well as exploring business opportunities.

“I’m open to any options that might come my way,” he said. “But one of the things I’ve tried to do this year is really stay focused on the athletics and see how that plays out, and then move on from there.”

Hartwig said his favorite countries to compete in have included Australia, France, Italy and England.

Depending on what happens in Beijing, he might add China to the list.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympic ... kid-a.html

Hartwig a kid at heart
9:10 AM, August 10, 2008
BEIJING — The old guy sounded like a kid at Christmas when he was talking about the opening ceremony.

Maybe it's because Jeff Hartwig didn't expect to be there, and not merely because it was hard to imagine a 40-year-old pole vaulter at the Olympics.

Hartwig's original plan was to arrive Friday, the day of the opening ceremony, but he was advised against it, perhaps because Beijing's airspace was to be closed for several hours as a security measure. So he landed Thursday and decided to attend the ceremony.

Neither the suffocating heat and humidity in the Bird's Nest stadium nor the hours of waiting to march bothered Hartwig, who held the U.S. pole vault record until this season.

There was a spark in Hartwig's eyes Sunday as he described the excitement of posing for pictures with President Bush, who addressed the U.S. team while it waited in a staging area — appropriately, it was the venue where three U.S. women fencers would sweep the saber medals on the official first day of Olympic competition.

Hartwig also was impressed by the patience and graciousness NBA stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James showed in posing for pictures with everyone who asked.

Hartwig's appreciation for the whole experience undoubtedly was heightened by missing the 2000 and 2004 Olympics despite coming into the U.S. trials as the record-holder. Both times, he had failed to clear a height in the qualifying round.

"Had I made those teams, who knows whether I would be here now," Hartwig said at the 2008 Olympic trials. "This one doesn't make up for those other years, those other teams, but at the same time, I feel very fortunate."

He made the Olympics in 1996, finishing 11th. He will finish his career as the oldest U.S. vaulter in Olympic history.

But a kid at heart.

— Philip Hersh

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_10248176

40-year-old vaulter not slowing down
By John Meyer
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/19/2008 08:07:13 PM MDT

BEIJING — Jeff Hartwig is the oldest man in the pole-vault field here and the oldest person on the U.S. Olympic track-and-field team, but he'll keep flying as long as he's able.
Hartwig made the Olympic team in 1996, and he's back 12 years later, still getting high on the feeling he gets when he hits one just right, more than 18 feet in the air.
"If I thought I could go 10 more years, I would," said Hartwig, 40. "I love the sport that much."
There isn't a lot of fame or fortune in pole vault, but there is a lot of fun. Hartwig, who lives in Jonesboro, Ark., makes enough off the sport that he doesn't have to work a regular job, and at least one guy in Denver envies him.
Pat Manson, who still holds the Colorado prep record he set at Aurora Central High School, is the same age as Hartwig and had many battles with him. At a meet last winter, they traded masters indoor world records. Manson went 17 feet, 7 inches, then Hartwig went 18 feet.
Manson had hopes of making the Olympic team, but he strained his groin last spring while moving a vault pad at a youth clinic he was conducting. That was the end of his Olympic aspirations, at least for 2008.
"The physical demands are just really high on your body," Manson says. "Just to make an Olympic team is an amazing achievement. To do it at age 40 is even more so. We're long jumpers that do a big gymnastics move in the air, with the precision of a golf swing."
Hartwig attributes his longevity to staying injury-free, if not pain-free.
"My body hurts all the time," said Hartwig, who lives in Jonesboro, Ark. "Nothing's broken. I don't have any injuries, but little things hurt all the time."
After falling short of the Olympic team in 2004, Hartwig said there was no way he'd be back this year. It wasn't that he wanted to quit — he just didn't think he'd still be competitive.
"I never thought, as a 36-year-old, that it would be possible to be anywhere close to this level as a 40-year-old," he said. "Yet I attribute my success as a 40-year-old to the fact that I just never quit."
Manson has jumped in excess of 18 feet every year since 1985, hooked on the fun of it.
"You run down and you have a big takeoff, then you swing your body up to vertical, then you have all this energy stored up in the pole and in the momentum of your body," Manson said. "Then it all comes together when the pole launches you off the top. When you do it right, it's just a real thrill."
Hartwig was second at the Olympic Trials. Brad Walker, who was third, won the gold medal at the world championships last year and is considered the favorite here, coming into the meet with the best vault in the world this year, 19-93/4. Qualifications are today.
Hartwig's best this year is 18-8-3/4.
"I enjoy not only the training, the competition, the travel, just being around all the other pole vaulters," Hartwig said. "My best friends in the world are the other vaulters. If I could go 10 more years, I would."