Leila Ben-Youssef raising the bar

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/ ... orts02.txt

Raising the bar
Posted: Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 - 11:35:27 pm MDT


Greg Schindler

Call me unpatriotic, but my favorite athlete at the Beijing Olympics won’t be representing the United States. She’ll be competing for Tunisia, and she happens to be a small-town Montana girl.

Leila Ben-Youssef isn’t hard to root for. I met the Sidney native at Stanford, where she was majoring in human biology, minoring in archeology, and starring as a pole vaulter on the Cardinal track and field team.

Though she was raised in eastern Montana, Ben-Youssef’s triple citizenship (her father was born in Tunisia and her mother in France) assured her a spot on the Tunisian squad provided she clear the Olympic qualifying height by July 23. She hit her mark on June 19, soaring 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches at an all-comers meet in Los Gatos, Calif.

“I was anxious but hopeful all the same,” Ben-Youssef said. “Either way, it had been a great experience.”

That experience began at Sidney High School, where Ben-Youssef was a three-time Class A state champion before graduating in 2000. Her vast dreams flourished in her tiny town, but Olympic glory wasn’t part of her vision.

“I think doing well enough to compete in college was kind of my primary goal,” Ben-Youssef said. “I was excited to attend a school that was strong both academically and athletically.

“The idea of training for the Olympics definitely didn’t happen until after college.”

To secure a spot in Beijing, Ben-Youssef had to improve upon her best collegiate vault by more than a foot. But raising the bar is nothing new for her.

Ben-Youssef, who also has a master’s degree in medical anthropology from Stanford, remains a student-athlete. She is starting medical school through the University of Washington this summer, and will be completing her first year of coursework at Montana State through a program that allows Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho residents to pay in-state tuition for Washington’s prestigious medical school.

Her semester begins Aug. 18, meaning Ben-Youssef will miss her first week of school to attend opening ceremonies and compete in Beijing, then skip closing ceremonies to travel back to Bozeman by Aug. 24.

But the Olympics will at least give Ben-Youssef a rare break from her books, right?

“Nope, I have a quiz the Monday I get back,” she said. “I’ve arranged with my professors, so they’ll be sending me notes and all kinds of good stuff.

“It kind of comes with the territory.”

Ben-Youssef is hardly the first Olympian to compete for a country she doesn’t call home.

“For African nations, it’s actually pretty common,” she said. “For example, Nigeria has a lot of their track and field athletes and basketball players coming from the states.”

Ben-Youssef knows many of her more than two dozen Tunisian teammates via international competition. During the last year, she has taken first place at the Pan-Arab games in Egypt, the Pan-African games in Algeria and the African Championships in Ethiopia.

Tunisia is Africa’s northernmost country — and more than 5,000 miles from Montana — but the nation’s culture isn’t lost on Ben-Youssef, who has been there about a dozen times, including last summer.

“My whole dad’s side of my family is there,” she said. “My grandma’s there, my cousins are there, my second cousins are there — the whole crew.”

And intrasquad communication shouldn’t be a problem. Ben-Youssef grew up speaking French — one of Tunisia’s common languages, along with Tunisian Arabic — at home.

Ben-Youssef has traveled throughout much of the world, but she doesn’t have to remind herself of her Montana roots. They’re the core of everything she’s accomplished.

“I’m thrilled to be representing Montana in the Games,” she said. “It’s where I grew up and a large part of who I am.

“A lot of people who started me on this road to becoming an athlete and showing me how to compete are from there. Sidney has a long tradition of being a very athletic community — being strong in its sports.”

Despite a lifetime of achievement, Ben-Youssef remains an underdog — at least in Beijing, where her sport’s front runners will stand eight to 10 inches taller than her, with a much better view of the medal stand. Ben-Youssef admits to being 5-foot-2 — “in shoes.”

“When I was starting, the sport was really new, and pole vaulters at the time were all ex-gymnasts, so I didn’t find myself disadvantaged by any means in regards to stature,” she said. “Now, as the sport’s progressed, the better pole vaulters are the taller ones because it’s physically easier for them.

“Technically, I just have to be much more precise. I don’t have the margin of error of women who might be 6 feet.”

No matter how she fares in Beijing, Ben-Youssef knows the trip will be unforgettable — even if her studies interfere with the party.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit of everything,” she said. “It’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be overwhelming.

“I’m going to be nervous, but competition-wise, I feel really prepared.

“As for the environment, I feel like it’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be surrounded by quality athletes form all over the world.”

Many of those international athletes have never heard of Montana, let alone Sidney, which will allow Ben-Youssef to transition from student to teacher. She said she typically mentions mountains and cowboys when describing The Last Best Place.

“People don’t tend to know where Tunisia is, either,” Ben-Youssef said, “so I’ve gotten really good at drawing maps.”

[CowtownPV]

Great kid and is another great story about what hard work can do for you. I saw her right out of HS and would not thought of her as a potential 14' jumper but she has stayed with it and worked very hard. More proof that good things do happen to good people! Congrats Leila.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.redwoodcitydailynews.com/art ... le-vaulter

Pole vaulter goes up, up and away
Stanford's Leila Ben-Youssef hopes to pole vault to new heights in a distant land - China - and for a distant land - Tunisia
By Vytas Mazeika / Daily News Staff Writer
Stanford will be well represented during the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, with 46 athletes - past and present - from seven countries. This includes Leila Ben-Youssef, 26, who will be representing Tunisia in the women's pole vault.

"I think to be part of the opening ceremony is something that is just historical and exciting," Ben-Youssef said. "To be able to represent your country with famous athletes who are also doing the same is a very honorable position to be in."

And to think, her junior high coaches in Montana almost derailed what has turned into an Olympic career.

"When you're first starting out in junior high, you're allowed to try all the events," Ben-Youssef said. "The guys were pole vaulting and I said, 'I have no idea what that is, but that's next on my list of things to try.'"

The head coach at the time turned her down because she was a girl.

"That fired me up a little bit," Ben-Youssef said.

With her team in need of points from a female pole vaulter, Ben-Youssef finally got her chance in her last junior high meet. She grabbed a pole, jumped 6 feet - and won.

"I think the high jumper may have jumped higher, but that's kind of how it started," said Ben-Youssef, who by the end of the summer was clearing 9 feet.

A stellar high school career - during which she began to consider competing for Tunisia, where her father was born - soared to new heights in 1999, when she became the African junior record holder and the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic champion.

"Pole vaulting has a reputation, I guess, for being a little bit scary, but when you have a good coach who knows what he's doing and you have the capability, then most of the risk is taken away," Ben-Youssef said. "For me, there is no fear factor. There's more of a thrill factor. When you catch the ride, and the pole bends and you go with it, it's an amazing feeling."

Next up was four years at Stanford.

"Knowing that I was pre-med, I knew that my focus was on academics," Ben-Youssef said. "So that's where I concentrated all my efforts. That said, I was also a student-athlete."

Her collegiate career best is 12 feet, 11-3/4 inches, which came at the Stanford Spring Opener her junior year in 2003 - the fourth-best vault in school history.

The 5-foot-1 Ben-Youssef, who has been accepted to her top choice for medical school (University of Washington), never jumped as high as she wanted in college. That motivated her to stick with the sport after graduating with a masters in medical anthropology.

Most of the past two years has been spent training with Scott Slover, who is also the coach at Cal. An elite group of pole vaulters that trains with Slover includes Tori Anthony, the Daily News Peninsula Sports Person of the Year. Last season, Anthony set the national outdoor and indoor high school girls pole vault records while at Castilleja School in Palo Alto.

Ben-Youssef attributes her improvement of over a foot from her collegiate best to a training program that tackles both the what as well as the why.

"As an analytical person, that's really helped me understand it," Ben-Youssef said.

The success includes gold medals in last July's Pan-African Games in Algeria as well as November's Pan-Arab Games in Egypt. Ben-Youssef also competed in the African Games hosted by Ethiopia.

"Being in that atmosphere was unbelievable," Ben-Youssef said. "Thirty thousand fans who sat through the entire time while it was raining, watching the pole vault, clapping, cheering, burning their pamphlets on fire. It was a really cool atmosphere to be in."

Who knows how that will compare to the opening ceremony in Beijing?

At a Los Gatos all-comers meet earlier in the year, Ben-Youssef finally cleared the 14-1 mark needed to qualify for the Olympics.

That means she'll get to partake in tonight's festivities and enjoy life in the Olympic village, where Ben-Youssef looks forward to meet people both familiar and new.

She'll compete in the qualifying round next Friday at 7:10 p.m. with the final heat starting half an hour later.

"I'll be competing with the world's best," Ben-Youssef said.

An honorable position indeed.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=6101

Montanan to compete in the Olympics as a pole vaulter for Tunisia

August 11, 2008 -- Anne Pettinger, MSU News Service

Leila Ben-Youssef of Sidney, who will begin the WWAMI medical program at MSU this fall, is set to take part in Beijing's Olympics as a pole vaulter for the Tunisian team. In this photo, Ben-Youssef vaults in the Stanford Invitational at the Cobb Track and Angell Field on March 29, 2003. Photo courtesy of Stanford University.
Before setting foot on the Montana State University campus for classes this fall, one student from eastern Montana will be competing in the Beijing Olympics as a pole vaulter for Tunisia.

Leila Ben-Youssef, who grew up in Sidney, is often asked how she came to compete for the Tunisian team, but it's actually pretty simple.

Since she was born in the U.S. to immigrants -- her mother was born in France and her father in Tunisia -- Ben-Youssef has triple citizenship. Those citizenship rights assured her a spot on the Tunisian squad as long as she cleared one of the Olympic's two qualifying standards. The Montanan who competed in the pole vault as an undergraduate at Stanford did just that in June, clearing 14 feet and 1 ¼ inches at a meet in California.

At 26, Ben-Youssef will be the only pole vaulter competing for Tunisia in Beijing's Olympics, and one of just four track and field athletes representing the country. Though she grew up in Montana, Ben-Youssef has been to Tunisia, Africa's northernmost country, about a dozen times.

"My family and I visited every other summer or so," she said. "My grandmother and cousins are still in Tunisia, and my grandfather was a well-known political leader.

"I feel fortunate to be able to go there," she added. "It's a beautiful country rich in history, culture, and traditions."

Ben-Youssef's path to becoming a pole vaulter for the Tunisian Olympic team began in Sidney, where her father has been an orthopedic surgeon for more than 25 years.

Ben-Youssef got her first taste of pole vaulting by trying it out a handful of times during junior high track, which she said was one of the benefits of going to a small school.

"You get to try every event out," she said.

Ben-Youssef began to focus on and excel at the sport at Sidney High School, where she was a three-time Class A state champion before graduating in 2000.

"At the time, women's pole vaulting had been around for only a few years," Ben-Youssef said. "I was lucky, because Montana was one of the first states to allow women's pole vaulting and my high school was very supportive."

Once she graduated from Sidney High School, Ben-Youssef attended Stanford University, where she majored in human biology, minored in archaeology and competed for the university's track and field team. After completing her undergraduate degree, she also earned a master's degree in medical anthropology from Stanford.

Even after she had finished competing for Stanford, Ben-Youssef continued pole vaulting.

Scott Slover, who has been Ben-Youssef's private coach for nearly three years, said she is well-prepared for the Games.

"She is one of the best technical pole vaulters I've ever seen," Slover said. "Last year she jumped great, and she's been steadily improving. That's when we started focusing on the Olympic Games."

As training for the Games, Ben-Youssef pole vaulted twice a week for four or five hours. To bring variety to her workouts, she also spent additional time throughout the week doing plyometrics, attending gymnastics class, sprinting and doing various other activities.

Ben-Youssef said she feels well-prepared for the Olympics, and part of that may be because she's performed in international competitions before. Last year, she racked up first-place wins at the Pan-Arab games in Egypt, the Pan-African games in Algeria and the African Championships in Ethiopia.

Beijing's pole vaulting trials are set for Aug. 16, one week after opening ceremonies. About 24 competitors are expected to participate, and the top 12 will make the finals, set for Aug. 18.

Though she feels well-prepared, Ben-Youssef has her work cut out for her. At 5' 2", she's not nearly as tall as many of the world's elite pole vaulters, which puts her at a disadvantage.

"It's physically easier to pole vault when you're taller," she said. "So I have to be much more precise."

Ben-Youssef simply hopes to do her best at the Games.

"It would be great to pull out a solid performance," she said. "If I can make the finals, it would be fantastic."

She's looking forward to being in the midst of the world's best athletes, especially those in the pole vaulting community, which she called a "small and supportive" group of people.

As excited as she is for the Olympics, Ben-Youssef is also looking forward to beginning medical school.

She will attend the University of Washington, which allows her to complete her first year of coursework at MSU through a program in which Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho residents pay in-state tuition and complete their first year in their home state.

"I'm a Montana resident, so the WWAMI program was my first choice," she said. "I'm thrilled to be coming back."

WWAMI's focus on primary care, as well as its solid clinical base and small class sizes, attracted Ben-Youssef to the program. She is also interested in rural and international health issues and said the program was a natural fit for those reasons.

"WWAMI has a rural focus, and having grown up in the eastern part of (Montana), that's something I'd probably like to go back to," Ben-Youssef said.

Though pole vaulting been an important part of her life for many years, Ben-Youssef also expects it to take a backseat once school begins. "Medical school will be my primary focus from now on," she said.

For now, though, Beijing calls.

"This is an amazing opportunity," she said. "I'm very excited and thrilled to represent not only Tunisia, but my home state of Montana."

[rainbowgirl28]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNb49zIvAZg

[SelahPV]

I hope she vaults next year while she's at MSU. It'll be fun to watch her.