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And now to Olympic pole vaulting. The camera pans to what appears to be a large white blanket in the form of a tent. Wait, there's someone moving underneath the blanket. It's alive! And then, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, out comes the pride of Volgograd, Elena Isinbaeva.
It's all part of the bizarre routine by Ms. Isinbaeva, who is drop dead gorgeous and incidentally, the world's best female pole vaulter. But oh that routine.
After every jump, failed or not, she retreats under the white blanket. Once into the open air, she trots up and down the runway a few times, grabs the pole, adjusts her long fingernails, chalks the pole, flexes her wrists over and over again a la Nomar Garciaparra, and begins to talk to herself. The conversation lasts for awhile, until finally, she lifts her face and beautiful blue eyes to the skies and talks to the top of her pole, or something high up there.
Monday night, it was all good enough for a new world record in the pole vault, long after the event's other competitors, none of whom retreated under a blanket between jumps, had dropped out.
For some of us, this may be the lasting image of the Games. A white tent with an Olympic champion inside. But the mystery remains: what exactly idoes she do in there? Suggestions welcome.
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Steve Oglesby from Evansville, United States writes: Yelena is merely using a mental technique for herself and against her competition. The pole vault is the most complex athletic event in the Olympics. The event is fraught with the chance to make the smallest mistake, which results in either slopping your way through a successful vault or more probably, a failed attempt. The competition is between the athlete and the crossbar, but the difference between winners and losers are often decided by mental toughness. Getting your competition thinking about anything except their own performance can be the difference between Gold and Silver. Concerning Isinbeyeva, she is making sure her competitors are wondering what she is thinking under the blanket (not focused on themselves) while creating her own comfortable, private environment to keep their input away from her psyche (focusing on herself). There are many who believe in the power of visualization. If you can see yourself doing something in your mind before attempting to do it in reality, you have a better chance of actually accomplishing the act itself." Cocooned in the comfort of her blanket she is more than likely visually replaying her last vault and pre-visualizing her next. Vaulter (and all field events performers) do not have direct contact with their competitors. They generally see themselves as being in a special event that happens to be in Track and Field Competition....much like the Trampoline is to gymnastics. Thus, vaulters have a stronger than normal kinship of competition. All are, by nature, tremendous competitors and the best all-round athletes in the stadium (yes, even more so than the decathletes) so, to gain any advantage over your competitors starts with the head.
- Posted 19/08/08 at 11:45 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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