Chelsea Johnson has the right mix to go far

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http://trackfield.teamusa.org/news/2010 ... ?ngb_id=48


Johnson has the right mix to go far
Karen Rosen July 02, 2010


Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Chelsea Johnson of United States competes in the women's Pole Vault Final during day three of the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium on August 17, 2009 in Berlin, Germany.

Two guys walk into an English pub. They strike up a conversation with some construction workers. Upon learning they’re pole vaulters, one of the construction workers says, “Oh, our favorite pole vaulter in the whole world is Chelsea Johnson.”

No joke. Hearing the story later from U.S. teammate Derek Miles, Johnson was taken aback.

“So often you’re just kind of in your own little world, you don’t realize when you start becoming a familiar face,” she said.

Winning a silver medal at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin can do that for you. Johnson’s agent, Karen Locke, noting that the construction workers said the 26-year-old was gorgeous, told her, “You’re too young to be gorgeous; you’re cute as a button.”

So now people have started calling her “Button.”

“There are worse nicknames,” Johnson said.

And there are great ones. Johnson will next compete at “Pre,” the Prefontaine Classic, today in Eugene, Ore. The meet, part of the inaugural Diamond League worldwide circuit, is named for the city’s favorite son, distance runner Steve Prefontaine.

Johnson, of Atascadero, Calif., is coming off a disappointing sixth-place finish last week at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Jenn Suhr (nee Stuczynski), who has recovered from the Achilles injury that forced her to withdraw from the 2009 World Championships, won her fifth straight title with a world-leading vault of 16-0½.

Johnson, who was the runner-up last year, cleared only 14-5¼, more than a foot lower than her personal best and the same height she vaulted two weeks earlier to place third at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York.

Throughout her career, Johnson has had her fair share of ups and downs. She's had injuries and phases where she didn’t rise to her level of expectation mixed in with unexpected success.

Earlier this year, the week before the 2010 indoor Worlds, Johnson broke her favorite pole in a competition in Donetsk, Ukraine, injuring her shoulder.

Breaking poles “is kind of just the nature of the sport,” she said.

Johnson had been planting the pole, which was in full bend when it broke.

Two years ago, she snapped a pole in practice, and the sheer energy of the break went to her left wrist, breaking it as well.

It was April 2008, and Johnson was in a cast for six weeks, giving her little time to get ready for the Olympic Trials.

“During the six weeks, I put so much pressure and all this stress on myself to be out of cast as soon as possible,” she said. “Looking back, I would have gone about it in a different manner and just tried to relax, realizing that it was kind of out of my hands.”

Johnson regained her form to vault a personal best of 15 feet, 6¼ inches, but 10 days later she struggled with nerves and a hamstring problem at the Olympic Trials. She cleared only 14-5¼ to place seventh.

That was even more frustrating considering that four years earlier she had been a surprising fourth-place finisher, barely missing the Olympic team.

“In 2004, to be honest, I was pretty naïve to the whole experience,” Johnson said. “I was disappointed, but I hadn’t really gone into it thinking I was going to make the team, so I came away with the experience of feeling like I went out and competed really well for only being 20 years old.”

She took a similar approach last year in Berlin, where no one expected her to medal.

“I just tried to have a good time and do as best as I could,” Johnson said.

The odds-on favorite was Yelena Isinbayeva, who had won the last two Olympic and world titles. But the Russian no-heighted. She miscalculated by going in at 15-7, missing twice and then failing on her final attempt with the bar raised to 15-9.

Johnson, who cleared 15-3 and shared the silver with Monica Pyrek of Poland, empathized with Isinbayeva.

“I felt bad for her because we’ve all been there,” Johnson said. “She was obviously ready to jump high, considering she set the world record again the next week. It came down to she just had a bad day at work. She just proved that she’s human, which I think a lot of people had forgotten.”

Johnson says every female pole vaulter owes Isinbayeva a great amount of respect. “She’s put women’s pole vault on the map,” she said. “It’s become a popular event and people like it because of her. We owe her a lot.”

Some people might assume that Johnson took up the sport at her father’s knee. Jan Johnson was the 1972 Olympic bronze medalist and has two pole vault pits in the backyard of the family home, where he holds clinics and camps.

But Chelsea resisted the family sport. “I kind of just was on my own path,” she said.

She was in the Olympic Development Pool for soccer twice as a youngster, then in high school she veered from soccer to volleyball, where she also excelled.

“Right from the get-go, Chelsea was really athletic,” said her father.

Rather than push her into pole vaulting, though, he understood the need for her to do her own thing.

“When you have to follow in a parent’s footsteps and the parent has done really well at something, you have to try to live up to that a little bit, especially if you’re competitive,” he said. “It never really made any sense.”

Finally, her senior year, it did make sense. For about three or four months, they practiced in the backyard. “She didn’t want anybody to watch,” Jan Johnson said.

Chelsea got to 12 feet quickly, which immediately made her one of the best young females in the state. She reached 13 feet a month or two later, and by the end of her senior year, she was going 13-6 and was the best female high school vaulter in the country.

Although every time Chelsea stepped on a high school runway, she’d hear the announcer say, “Now jumping Jan Johnson’s daughter,” her father said, “I think she kind of overcame those things, those little legacy things that kids have to drag around sometimes.”

At UCLA, Chelsea set the NCAA record, which still stands and was the first female collegiate vaulter over 15 feet. She’s still coached by Jan and also by her mom, Jani, who was an All-American runner at Cal-Poly. Her brother Clay also pole vaulted and is now a professional surfer.

Johnson has also learned from one of the female pioneers in the sport. Stacy Dragila, who won the inaugural women’s Olympic pole vault, took her under her wing.

“That’s been absolutely awesome, and such a great honor for me,” said Johnson, who spent much of the summer of 2009 on the pro circuit with Dragila. “She really just showed me the way of traveling and competing and staying sane at the same time. She keeps things light, but she always is a really, really hard worker.

“I think Stacy is one of the great American track stars, just because of how gracious she is and how good she is with fans. Everybody loves Stacy. She was such a good example of how to compete with pride and honor and have respect for your fellow competitors.”

Johnson still talks on the phone to Dragila, who retired last year to start a family and recently gave birth to a baby girl.

Johnson also dates the man considered the World’s Greatest Athlete, the 2009 world decathlon champion Trey Hardee.

They met in 2004 at an under-23 meet in Canada, remained good friends through college and have been dating for about a year.

Since the pole vault is part of the decathlon, they give each other tips. “He needs a little more help than I do,” Johnson said. “He listens. He doesn’t have the ‘man reflex’ and get upset or anything, He’s a great learner, obviously; he’s the world champion.”

She thinks if Hardee just concentrated on the pole vault, he could probably break the world record, but understands he likes the variety of the decathlon.

Johnson takes her own break from the pole vault by surfing, which gets her father’s approval. “He thinks it’s refreshing to be out in the water, and the paddling is good strength-wise for your arms.”

But isn’t surfing dangerous?

“Compared to the pole vault, it doesn’t feel that dangerous at all,” Johnson said.

Skateboarding and snowboarding, on the other hand, two of her other favorite pastimes, are too dicey with the London 2012 Olympic Games two years away.

“I’m just going into London with the same attitude that I went into Berlin, to have a good time and just try to do my best,” Johnson said.

Her father believes that’s the right attitude. “She’s a goofball, no question, and I mean that in a good way,” he said. “She’s got the perfect blend of being competitive, but not being too serious about it. If you can put those two things together, you’ll go for a long time in this.”

The construction workers will be on the look for her.