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Jillian Schwartz
What are you training for now?
Right now I’m training for the world championship
outdoors this year, at the beginning of August. National
championships are in two weeks from now, where, if we qualify
for the top three, we go to the world championships. That’s
my main focus, and of course, to go out there and win meets
and jump as high as I can.
What does your training schedule look like?
It varies from day to day. I pole vault twice a week and
do short sprints, weight lifting. It varies. Sometimes I’ll
be in the gym for an hour and a half or six hours. Basically
working on speed. The faster you are the higher you jump.
Competition season is going on right now. After nationals,
I’ll be heading over to Europe. I’ll spend all
summer traveling, competing.
Tell us more about Bell Athletics in Arkansas where you
train.
My coach [pole-vaulting legend Earl Bell] has pole-vaulting
camps. I came down here my senior year in college when I
decided to keep pole vaulting after school. I asked to move
down here because it’s one of the best in the world.
He understands the technique and the physics and all that.
It’s where I wanted to be.
What about law school?
I deferred [admission to Washington University School of
Law] right after graduating. If I wanted to go back now
I’d have to apply again. We’ll see. For now
I’m just going to pole vault. As long as I’m
having fun and improving. I’ll take it a year at a
time and then decide what I want to do in terms of school
or work. I can’t plan too far ahead with the pole
vaulting. You never know what will happen.
How old are you now?
Twenty-five.
You didn’t pole vault until college. Did you want
to play it in high school but they didn’t have it,
or had you never thought about it until Duke?
My high school and the state of Illinois didn’t have
it, until maybe junior year in college. I wanted to try
it in high school but we weren’t allowed to. Freshman
year in college was the first time the NCAA recognized it
as an event. [It was an exhibition sport previously.] Sophomore
year I started actually training.
Why did you decide sophomore year to concentrate solely
on pole vaulting?
I still did 100-meter hurdles and some long jumps until
halfway through junior year. Then I just pole vaulted, concentrated
on that.
What have been your biggest challenges and biggest rewards
in pole vaulting?
The biggest challenges in pole vaulting, and a lot of sports
in general, is the mental aspect, keeping your confidence
up and not letting certain situations affect you. You’re
not going to be perfect every day, and you need to work
through that. Whether it’s weather or even injuries,
trying to stay up on it mentally. For sure. Then staying
healthy. Not getting injured, making sure you stay ahead
of injuries, taking care of your body. Obviously, you can’t
compete well if you’re hurt.
I would say the biggest rewards are being able to go out
there and trying to be the best person out there. Every
time you reach a new personal best, it’s a great feeling.
Definitely a good reward is learning new things, getting
better at your event. In turn, you start winning more events,
which is the goal, obviously, of competing.
How do you decide at what height to jump?
You have time to warm up and practice your vault a few times.
Based on weather and facilities, you decide on different
poles. You warm up to gauge the environment and then determine
where you’re going to start. The meet itself will
pick a height to start the competition at and you can start
there or higher. Then you can move up in chosen increments,
of say six inches, from there. Go by what they set in terms
of that.
What is your favorite thing about pole vaulting?
Right now I love being able to travel all over the world
doing what I love and being able to support myself doing
that. You meet so many people from other countries, build
friendships with people, which is really cool.
How do you support yourself doing pole vaulting?
Nike is my shoe sponsor, so I get paid by them, and then
when you go to competitions there is prize money or there’s
an appearance fee. They’ll pay your way out there.
It’s a great thing.
What’s it like to fall 15 feet and land on your
back? What goes through your mind? Is it hard to trust the
pole?
I don’t even notice it. It all happens so fast that
I don’t feel much. Then you’re back on the pit.
Hopefully you made the bar. By the time you realize if you
made the bar or missed the bar you’re already down
in the pit.
Occasionally you’ll be in a bad facility, with thin
mats, and it could hurt a little. In old days they’d
pole vault into saw dust. I couldn’t imagine. They
didn’t jump as high, but they couldn’t pay me
to do it.
For someone new to pole vaulting, what’s some advice
about the sport that you’d give her?
I think the most important thing is to have fun. That’s
why all athletes get started. It’s a fun way to get
and stay in shape. In pole vaulting, it’s important
to find a good coach. There are many out there who don’t
know what they’re doing. Have fun and keep learning.
What are the differences between indoor and outdoor pole
vaulting?
I think the one good thing about indoor is that you don’t
have to worry about the weather element, whether or not
it’s going to rain, or if the wind’s bad. It’s
much more consistent. Less to worry about. However, you
can have meets where the wind is really strong behind you
and that can help a lot. It kind of goes both ways. But
they’re looked at as the same.
What does it take to be an all-American? [In 2000 she became
All-American when she came in third at a competition at
Duke.] Is it a certain number of wins?
Yes, it’s the top seven (or eight) Americans at the
college national meet.
What is your best sports memory or accomplishment?
One of the coolest things was last year at the Olympics.
To walk into the opening ceremonies, waving American flags.
The atmosphere was amazing. Definitely one of the best moments.
What motivates you?
Knowing I haven’t reached my potential yet. There’s
a lot more left. Jumping as high as I think I can keeps
me going. Seeing others doing higher motivates me to keep
up with the best people in the world.
Who are your role models?
I don’t know. Definitely a lot of people have influenced
me. My coach is for sure a big influence, in my athletics
anyway. And my parents.
How does it feel to be a role model for others?
I think it’s kinda cool. People can learn from what
I’m doing or if I can help kids out getting started
in pole vaulting or any athletics, it’s a cool deal.
Any stereotypes or challenges women face in pole vaulting?
Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t view women as
being really good pole vaulters. If you look at the way
men jump, there are not many women who jump the same way.
It’s technically different. There’s the potential
for women to be jumping a lot higher than they are. Except
for a few girls. At least that’s the view from some
of the male pole vaulters. Out there, people who don’t
know much about the sport, it’s great to watch. More
extreme perhaps than the other events.
Thoughts on being a Jewish female athlete?
It definitely is a pretty small group of people. It’s
really cool to be able to represent the Jewish people as
a group and to be able to be a role model.
What opportunities have you been given because of sports?
The biggest for me is the opportunity to travel around and
see a lot of things others haven’t. The friends I’ve
made are amazing. It’s a pretty close group of people.
To be able to go visit people in other places is just awesome.
This isn’t your first calendar. What was it like
to appear in the 2004 Vaultgirls Calendar?
Two of the other girls decided to put it together to raise
money. We flew out to L.A. for the photo shoot. It was a
great experience. There were six of us, so all the girls
had two photos, one athletic, one beach. We didn’t
make a whole lot of money off it, but it was fun.
*All interviews were conducted by Jodi Werner Greenwald, the calendar author, for express purposes of the Jewish + Female = Athlete project during 2005.
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