Amy Chow Article
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 12:23 am
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 5S3IU1.DTL
There was an Olympic gold medalist competing in the women's pole vault Friday at the Stanford Invitational and her name was not Stacy Dragila. Who was it?
It's a trick question.
The vaulter was Amy Chow, who in 1996 won a gymnastics gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in the team event with such gritty U.S. teammates as Kerri Strug, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes and Shannon Miller.
Now 25 and in her second year at Stanford Medical School, Chow is giving the pole vault a try, mostly as a physical release from all the studying required of a med student.
"I was done with gymnastics and was looking for something else to do,'' Chow said. "It's fun. I don't do it that much because I'm in medical school. It's something different. Otherwise, I'd just be studying, studying, studying.''
Don't expect to see Chow in a USA uniform competing in the vault at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens. While she was an elite gymnast, as a vaulter she's more of a dilettante, with a best of 12 feet, 5 inches in an event in which eight American women cleared 14-5 or higher in 2003.
On a windy and overcast afternoon at Cobb Track & Angell Field, Chow cleared 11-9 3/4 in an event won by Megan Ries of Nevada at 12-9 1/2.
"I'm just doing it for fun,'' Chow said. "I'm pretty much concentrating on med school. That takes up most of my time. I'd like to train more but I don't have the time.''
In what is still a relatively new event for women, many competitors come to the vault with backgrounds in gymnastics and tumbling. For Chow, being upside down in the vault is not much different than being in the same position in gymnastics.
"It's definitely (similar) when you're off the ground,'' she said. "You do a swinging motion. It's sort of like gymnastics.''
Chow, whose family lives in San Jose, attended Castilleja High School in Palo Alto before matriculating to Stanford, where she attained her undergraduate degree in 2002. She's halfway through med school, with a goal of working in pediatrics.
As for the gold medal she earned in 1996, "It's in the bank, actually. I haven't taken it out for a really long time.''
Chow said she keeps in touch with her '96 Olympic teammates through e-mail and occasional get-togethers such as last year in Anaheim at the gymnastics world championships.
"It's still amazing to me,'' she said of that galvanizing moment in Atlanta nearly eight years ago. "It was such a moment you won't forget.''
There was an Olympic gold medalist competing in the women's pole vault Friday at the Stanford Invitational and her name was not Stacy Dragila. Who was it?
It's a trick question.
The vaulter was Amy Chow, who in 1996 won a gymnastics gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in the team event with such gritty U.S. teammates as Kerri Strug, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes and Shannon Miller.
Now 25 and in her second year at Stanford Medical School, Chow is giving the pole vault a try, mostly as a physical release from all the studying required of a med student.
"I was done with gymnastics and was looking for something else to do,'' Chow said. "It's fun. I don't do it that much because I'm in medical school. It's something different. Otherwise, I'd just be studying, studying, studying.''
Don't expect to see Chow in a USA uniform competing in the vault at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens. While she was an elite gymnast, as a vaulter she's more of a dilettante, with a best of 12 feet, 5 inches in an event in which eight American women cleared 14-5 or higher in 2003.
On a windy and overcast afternoon at Cobb Track & Angell Field, Chow cleared 11-9 3/4 in an event won by Megan Ries of Nevada at 12-9 1/2.
"I'm just doing it for fun,'' Chow said. "I'm pretty much concentrating on med school. That takes up most of my time. I'd like to train more but I don't have the time.''
In what is still a relatively new event for women, many competitors come to the vault with backgrounds in gymnastics and tumbling. For Chow, being upside down in the vault is not much different than being in the same position in gymnastics.
"It's definitely (similar) when you're off the ground,'' she said. "You do a swinging motion. It's sort of like gymnastics.''
Chow, whose family lives in San Jose, attended Castilleja High School in Palo Alto before matriculating to Stanford, where she attained her undergraduate degree in 2002. She's halfway through med school, with a goal of working in pediatrics.
As for the gold medal she earned in 1996, "It's in the bank, actually. I haven't taken it out for a really long time.''
Chow said she keeps in touch with her '96 Olympic teammates through e-mail and occasional get-togethers such as last year in Anaheim at the gymnastics world championships.
"It's still amazing to me,'' she said of that galvanizing moment in Atlanta nearly eight years ago. "It was such a moment you won't forget.''