A local woman has a unique perspective watching the Paris Olympics, and she’ll take extra interest in the pole vault and Westmoreland County’s Bridget Williams. That’s because she was in her shoes, not once but twice.
Jillian Schwartz competed in pole vault for Team USA and Team Israel. She’s now Jillian Dickinson and a mother.
Dickinson got into pole vaulting when the sport was new to women.
“It was the first year pole vault was an event for women in the NCAA. I was like, ‘Yeah I’ll try it.’ So I did it kind of part-time for a couple years, and then my junior year that was the only thing I did,” Dickinson said.
She told Channel 11′s Jenna Harner, pole vaulting is a combination of speed and acrobatics.
“So training, we would train kind of like a sprinter and then with a little bit of gymnastics added in,” Dickinson explained.
Dickinson said for her and most track and field athletes, the U.S. trials to make Team USA is actually more nerve-wracking than the Olympic games themselves.
“A lot of the times we’re so deep that it’s really hard to make the team,” Dickinson said. “So once you’ve made it, you can sort of relax and just do what you know you can do.”
But what about the large stadiums and crowds?
“It’s kind of easy to focus because it is a big stadium so you’re not looking at everything all the time, you’re not necessarily hearing what’s going on. But it’s so cool to perform in front of, you know, 80,000 or however many people,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson also said most pole vaulting coaches don’t even go to the Olympics.
“You rely on each other a lot because in the end, you’re competing against yourself in that, not directly head to head against someone else,” Dickinson explained.
So with track and field always starting the second week of the Olympic games, what do the athletes do to pass the time during that first week?
“For me, it was always trying to just kind of replicate training at home and to not be nervous and just do what you do all the time,” Dickinson said.
But once you compete and are officially an Olympian, Dickinson said there’s nothing like it.
“That’s hard to sum up for sure. I feel like it’s a big responsibility but it’s also just an amazing honor to be able to represent your country.”
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