PoleVaultPower.com

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SOARING ABOVE THE FEAR

Vaulter Tim Mack ignores the danger in his Olympic chase


Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist

When Tim Mack is flying around up there, his hands above his head, straining mightily in a clinch with the vaulting pole, hanging upside-down in a lofty position that would make a cat worry about a safe landing, he often forgets that he is afraid of heights.

"You're just too busy," the former St. Ignatius and University of Tennessee vaulter said. "The pole vault happens so fast, you don't have time to think about it. It's not just being 19 or 20 feet in the air, it's all the variables of conditions and technique. There's always something you're working on."

A pole vaulter who prefers the ground, where things are nice and safe? Say it isn't so, Tim.

"It's not that I have acrophobia," said Mack, 31. "But I'm also not going to jump off a bridge, out of an airplane, or go cliff-diving. I am not an extreme-sports buff."

This is somewhat at odds with the image of the daredevil vaulter, reaching for the stars. The pole vault, an event in which Mack is an Olympic team hopeful, is one of the most stunning events in track and field. Only the unassisted high jump seems more astounding to a groundling.

"People love to watch the pole vault because it's visually overwhelming to see someone clear a bar way up there," Mack said.

It also requires a fairly dazzling array of athletic abilities. They include speed for the run-up; strength for the plant; endurance for the pack-a-lunch nature of the event, which often has vaulters competing when everyone else has gone home; and gymnastics training for the aerodynamic demands of turning off the pole, going upsy-daisy, and sailing over the bar.

Add the variables of headwinds and crosswinds and Mack, a former NCAA indoor champion, seems to be competing in an event that is a synthesis of the Olympic motto of "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Faster, Higher, Stronger").

Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, once graced Wheaties boxes. Bob Seagren, the 1968 Olympic gold medalist, won the first "Superstars" competition on television in the mid-1970s. While the "Superstars" was trash sport, it also validated vaulters as something more than specialists in an oddball event.

The pole vault is the most technically demanding event in track and field, so the best usually don't reach their peak until their late 20s or early 30s. Seagren, who won the Olympics as a brash youngster, is an exception.

There is also the fear factor to overcome. When a vaulter's pole breaks, the effect is that of the mother of all fastballs on the fists on a shivering early season day at the Jake.

"Poles don't break often, and you can usually do a back-flip if it happens and land in the pads," Mack said. "I've only had one break, knock on wood. It breaks when it's under the most stress. It's a fear you have to overcome. Your hands take a real beating when that happens. The vibration is like a concussion grenade went off."

Because the human body is not meant to withstand the rigors of pole vaulting, Mack only actually vaults twice a week. The rest of his practice time is spent jogging with the pole ("just to get the feel of running with it") and on the ropes, high bar, and rings of gymnastics.

He has the third-best vault in the country this year, 19 feet, 2¼ inches, achieved recently in Knoxville, Tenn. He is part of a five- or six-man mix, scrambling for the three spots.

In 2000, he had an awful day at the Olympic trials, which were also held in Sacramento, finishing eighth. He feels he overtrained then, became stale, and could not generate the speed needed to use a pole stiff enough to act as a catapult.

"I would think 19-4 will make it for sure," said Mack. "But you never know, because 18-5 ended up making the team last time. To jump 19 feet, it's a matter of just letting go and trusting your technique. You almost have to put yourself in an unsafe position to get there."

Mack's poles range from 16-9 to 17-0 in length. He said he is gripping them now at 16-5, up 5 inches from his last trials. That's a measure of added strength.

"I like my chances. I'm gripping higher. And I'm using stiffer poles," he said. "That means you should vault at least 5 inches higher and maybe a lot more."

Everything will be fine, as long as he doesn't look down.

http://www.wbir.com/sports/news.aspx?storyid=19248

Mack Hoping To Reach New Heights At Olympics

For Tim Mack, the pole vault was love at first sight. Not that he was all that excited about the event itself, but he loved the idea of a track competition with little running.

One day at track practice as he was preparing for another long run, Tim saw something that changed his life.

"I saw some kids doing pole vaulting drills," says Tim, "and I noticed that they weren't running long distances. So I decided that would be a better fit for me."

After that auspicious beginning, Tim did grow to love the event. He compares it to another favorite sport, golf, because of the complexity of movements and techniques required to do it correctly.

"It's a never ending process of trying to reach perfection," Mack said. "If I will ever reach perfection, I don't know. I figure while I'm healthy right now I'll give it my all trying to reach that perfect vault."

That search for perfection has Tim working on the various techniques necessary, as well as doing weight training and running. Since vaulting takes such a physical toll on the body, he works on some of his moves at a gymnastics facility.

And when all that training pays off, and Tim has planted the pole and begun to be propelled skyward...that is a special moment.

"When it's completely bent, and you're timed up so that you're completely upside down, Tim says, "you don't have to try really hard to extend off the top. That is the best feeling. You feel completely weightless, like there's nothing to stop you from extending into the air. That's the best feeling right there."

Tim has meticulously planned and prepared for his Olympic moment, right down to imagining himself already in Olympic competition.

After his win in the vault at the U.S. Olympic Trials, it's not hard to imagine Tim standing on the medal stand in Athens.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/olympics/ar ... 18,00.html

Mack's Gold Rush

Perseverance pays off with Olympic glory

By MIKE STRANGE, strange2@knews.com
October 3, 2004

"Hey, you're a gold medalist."

When Tim Mack returned to his adopted hometown this week as an Olympic champion he was curious as to the reception he would get. Football, after all, was up and running. Orange fever was in full bloom.

He got his answer at the license tag renewal counter.

"Hey, you're a gold medalist.''

He got his answer paying an overdue furniture bill.

"Hey, you're a gold medalist.''

"People recognize me in Europe,'' Mack said, "but I didn't know if they'd recognize me here.''

After he lifted his body over that golden pole-vault bar in Athens, Greece, on the evening of Aug. 27, 31-year-old Tim Mack fell to earth a changed man, not to mention a more recognizable one.

For a guy who scraped through years of anonymous training and financial sacrifice, ascending the Olympic pinnacle is nothing short of amazing.

For a community that has enjoyed a give-and-take relationship with Mack, it's a hoot.

"There are not enough good things you can say about Tim Mack, completely away from the athletic arena,'' said Marty Sonnenfeldt, director of the Knoxville Track Club youth program.

"What he's done for this area has been extraordinary.''

High-fiving over the phone Mack was born and raised in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, Ohio, but has called Knoxville home since 1993. That's when he transferred to the University of Tennessee from little Malone College in Ohio.

"I had to get out of the snow,'' Mack said.

He had a nice couple of years vaulting at UT, winning an NCAA indoor title in 1995.

Still, he was overshadowed by teammate Lawrence Johnson, who would go on to win silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

No one, not even Mack's longtime coach Jim Bemiller, would have predicted then that Olympic gold was in Mack's future.

Mack hung around, transitioning to the spartan life of a pro vaulter, earning a Master's degree at UT, paying bills as a fitness trainer.

"There were times,'' he said, "when I was like, 'I'm 28, come on, I should have a house or a condo or whatever. What am I doing?'

"My dad was still sending me money. If I won a competition for 500 bucks, that was a lot of money.''

But he always found time to give back, especially to the KTC youth program.

Even in the summer leading up to the Olympics, Mack could be found vaulting with the kids at Tom Black Track.

"You don't get too many guys who have reached that level willing to give back to the kids,'' Sonnenfeldt said.

"There's a group here in town and we keep track of Mack. Our kids keep track of Mack.

"(During the Games,) People are calling back and forth following it. It's almost like we were high-fiving over the phone lines.''



Goldinathens.com After the disappointment of an eighth-place finish at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento and a ninth-place finish at the 2001 World Championships in Canada, Mack realized he had to make some changes.

"On a good day with good conditions he could compete with anybody,'' said Bemiller. "But if it wasn't perfect conditions, he wasn't quite strong enough and his technique wasn't quite good enough.''

Bemiller has coached Mack since he came to UT. A fellow Ohioan, Bemiller has been a volunteer coach for the Vols since 1985 while earning a law degree and entering private practice.

This fall he has returned to UT as a faculty member.

"You don't make a living being a pole-vault coach,'' Bemiller said. "So I had to drop back and do something else.''

Mack decided it was time to turn it up a notch if he wanted to break into vaulting's inner circle.

One of the first things he did after the Trials in Sacramento was change his e-mail address to include the mantra "goldinathens.''

"Just to plant the seed,'' he said.

"And, you know, that was the last thing I thought of (before his gold-medal jump). I told myself, 'You didn't pick silverinathens. You will clear this.' ''

After finishing out of the money in Canada in '01, he and Bemiller agreed he had to get stronger.

The pole vault is a violent pursuit. Running full speed and then planting the pole in the box to begin the lift-off is a jolting transition.

"I've heard (vaulter) Earl Bell say it's like riding in a convertible and reaching up and grabbing an overpass,'' said Bemiller.

Mack worked with weights. Gymnastics coach Phil Savage improved Mack's airborne technique.

Sports psychologist Joe Whitney toughened Mack between the ears.

"Mentally,'' said Mack, "I had to be a stone out there.''

Russell Johnson, a former UT vaulter, illustrated the benefits of keeping meticulous notes on which poles worked in various conditions.

Gradually, Mack evolved into a guy who could compete anywhere, in any conditions.

His breakthrough came in winning the Goodwill Games in 2001. The following year, he won the USA indoor title.

Those successes attracted enough financial support to give up his day job at the National Fitness Center on Tazewell Pike.

"I was able to train twice a day,'' Mack said. "That's a huge difference.''



Return to Sacramento In the summer of 2003, Mack finished sixth at the World Championships in Paris. The Olympic countdown had begun.

When he returned to Sacramento for the 2004 Olympic Trials, he was a different athlete than he had been four years earlier.

That he won the Trials over Toby Stevenson, clearing 19 feet, 4 inches, was no more than a mild upset if one at all.

In the five weeks leading up to the Olympics, Mack headed to Europe to stay in form. Beating a world-class field in Zurich, Switzerland, lifted his confidence.

"Everybody there was going to be at the Games,'' he said. "It was like I knew I could do it, but I needed to do it against these guys.''

In Athens, the vault came late in the schedule. In the interim, the U.S. training camp on the island of Crete was the perfect retreat.

Bemiller's arrival buoyed his spirits. At the last minute, Knoxville pal Tim O'Hare showed up, too.

"Every day,'' said Mack, "I was getting confidence from something.''

On a Wednesday, Mack made the 16-man cut for the finals. No sweat.

Friday was the day of reckoning. Determined to stay focused, Mack virtually avoided his parents and four siblings who came to Athens.

"I didn't even want to know where they were sitting,'' Mack said. "My mom would be telling me things and I would cut her off in mid-sentence.

"After the fact, I told them I was sorry I was a jerk, but it worked.''



Get away from the bar Once the finals began, Mack felt good. When the bar reached 19 feet, 6 1/4 inches, only the two Americans remained, but Stevenson led for the gold based on fewer misses at a lower height.

Each missed his first two attempts at the height, which represented an Olympic record and, for Mack, a personal-best.

Mack's final attempt would determine the difference between silverinathens and goldinathens. It was the moment of truth.

"I knew three strides from the box I was going to have a great shot at it,'' Mack said. "I can tell by my posture.

"In the middle of the jump, I thought I was going to hit (the bar) going up. But I think that's one bar I actually willed myself over. It was not my best jump of the day.''

As his body reached its zenith, he was clear. His immediate thought: Get away from the bar.

On the way down, he knew he had won gold.

"I've been looking at a picture,'' he said. "I don't know, but I think it was that last jump. The hair on my arms is standing on end. My hair doesn't do that.''

When he landed to the roar of the crowd, Mack instinctively pumped his arms. Then a realization shook him to the core.

Stevenson had one more jump left.

"I slammed the door shut (on thinking of winning),'' Mack said. "I knew he was going to make it and the crowd was going to go crazy and I told myself to get ready to jump 19-8.''

As Stevenson regrouped for his final jump, Mack looked away. He never watches the competition. The crowd told him Stevenson missed. Goldinathens.



A nod from Bubka The medal ceremony was the next evening, affording Mack a glorious day to let the enormity of what he had done begin to sink in.

As he returned to the stadium, from underneath, looking out through the tunnel, he could see the podium bathed in the light of a gorgeous night.

And he could see waiting to present the medals, the legend himself, Sergey Bubka.

"Me being on that podium, it was not what I did,'' Mack said. "Yeah, I had to perform, but it's just a product of all the help I've had through the years.

"I really wanted to enjoy it and think about all the people that made it possible.''

All the people back home in Ohio. All the people high-fiving over the phone lines back in Knoxville.

"I looked over at Bubka and he's looking straight at me,'' Mack said. "He gave me a nod, like 'good job.' A thumbs-up from Sergey Bubka.

"Then I remembered, don't try to sing because you're going to screw it up.''

Singing the national anthem was the one facet of the Olympic experience Mack had not prepared for.

"I didn't want to jinx myself,'' he said.



Onward, upward No jinx. No fluke. After Athens, Mack stayed in Europe and won several more competitions before flying home to Tennessee.

In Monaco on Sept. 18, he became the 12th man ever to clear 6 meters (19-8 1/4).

"I think he can break the world record (6.14 meters),'' said Bemiller, "and I'm pretty conservative in what I go around spouting.''

Mack turned 32 on Sept. 15. He's never felt better. The 2008 Olympics in China are very much a possibility.

In the meantime, the financial pressure is off.

"I can pretty much guarantee I'll be in the major meets for the next four years,'' said Mack. "Not just in them, but in them with an appearance (fee).''

For a few weeks, he will kick back and enjoy the moment. After the whirlwind visit to Knoxville, more celebration waited in Cleveland.

One of the congratulatory messages on his answering machine was from Lawrence Johnson, his old teammate.

"We respect the heck out of each other,'' Mack said.

Respect is an attribute Mack has earned in spades, from the world vaulting fraternity and from the Knoxville community that pulled for its nice guy to finish first.

The grinder did it. He reached the top. And he's as amazed as anyone.

"I'm trying to figure it out myself,'' Mack said. "Sooner or later, I'm going to understand it and figure out what happened.''

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plainde ... 201791.xml

Cathcing A Gold

Olympic pole vault champ Mack shares his ware with St. Ignatius

Friday, October 01, 2004

You can't go home again, at least not without limbering up your autographing muscles.

When Westlake's Tim Mack returned to his alma mater of St. Ignatius High School on Thursday, he signed, among other things, a student's laptop computer, another's Gatorade bottle and enough shirts to make mothers around the area check the sales circulars for replacements. No kid big enough to dream is going to allow suds to touch haberdashery signed by an Olympic gold medalist.

The pole vault champion in Athens also let the faculty photocopy his gold medal, so the Greek inscription on the back could be translated by teachers. The words are part of an ode by the ancient poet Pindar, who composed it when the world was young and the Olympics were held in Ancient Olympia. "Mother of golden-crowned contests, Olympia, queen of truth," it read.

"Is it legal to Xerox a gold medal?" St. Ignatius football/track and field coach Chuck Kyle jokingly asked.

Photocopying the medal, yes. Duplicating the champion who won it will be a much tougher task.

When Mack cleared the bar that had been set at an Olympic record of 19 feet, 6¼ inches on his third and last attempt, he became the first Cuyahoga County track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event since Madeline Manning of John Hay High School in 1968. He is now part of the sports lore of Cleveland, his name linked with the greatest the city has produced - Jesse Owens, Harrison Dillard, Manning, Mack.

It is not only that Mack won, it is how he won. The 2000 Olympic pole vault, when Nick Hysong won the USA's first gold medal since 1968, was a long bungle of missed jumps.

August 27, 2004, in Athens was not like that. It ended in a dramatic thunderclap, like Mary Lou Retton sticking her landing in gymnastics in 1984. Very few athletes set records in an Olympic final, because nothing else remotely approaches the pressure of the Olympics. Four years of an athlete's life come down to one try, against the best in the world, amid suffocating pressure. In Tim Mack, the man met the moment and made it his own.

Who knew? Not Track and Field News, which didn't pick him to medal. Not Sports Illustrated, which forecast a bronze medal for him.

At lunch, St. Ignatius officials jokingly presented Mack with a Superman T-shirt that had been bought by his mother ("Thanks, mom. This won't get any attention," Mack deadpanned.). It was a sweet joke, for Mack's career has been a tribute to persistence, not to the powers of a superhero.

By blossoming at the age of 32, after years of apprenticeship in the most technically demanding event in track and field, Mack set an example for everyone. You do not have to be LeBron James, or the young Tiger Woods, or Jaret Wright in 1997. You do not have to be a child prodigy or "The Natural." It is not what you were, but what you are that counts.

Tim Mack was a very good high school vaulter, but he soon sprang past Kyle's expertise. Besides, the event is voraciously expensive, so training options were limited. Fiberglass poles run as much as $500 each. "We had a Catholic school budget. We might be able to buy one. A second one was tough," Kyle said.

Out of high school, Mack got only a scholarship to Malone College in Canton, an NAIA school. Even when track and field power Tennessee came calling two years later, track fans saw him as a shouldn't-have-done and a wasn't-supposed-to athlete.

He finished eighth in the 2000 Olympic Trials, after which he revamped his training. He used stiffer vaulting poles. He gripped them near the end. He developed his upper body, the better to manhandle the most cantankerous poles, until today he seems to have sprung off the pages of a body-building magazine.

Still, he was dead-last in the Prefontaine Classic on June 19, in an important tune-up for the U.S. Olympic Trials. That night, he told his parents, Don and Arlene, that he would win the Trials. Three weeks later, he did.

"You have to deal with failure. "You have to embrace it and think that it will make you stronger," Mack told 1,400 St. Ignatius students at the school assembly in his honor.

A pole vault pit stood inside the gym, with the bar set at 19-6¼. Since high-school vaulting standards are only 18 feet high, carpenters had to add a wooden extension. Awed students walked under it, craning their necks. Nothing showed how high Mack had flown more clearly than that.

In a way, Mack called his takeoff and landing, though. He devised his own Internet Web site three years ago, calling it GoldNAthens as a motivational tool. "I was thinking before my last attempt, you didn't make it SilverNAthens," he said.

Now he has won seven straight pole vault competitions. He soared to 6.01 meters (19-8¾), the seventh-best vault of all-time in Monaco after the Olympics. Only 12 men in history have cleared six meters, which is the "four-minute mile" of pole vaulting.

"But I was not sad to see the season end," Mack said. "I had been so tightly focused for so long" - and his features, indeed everything but his close-cropped hair clenched - "that I had to let down my guard."

His life, particularly in track and field-crazy Europe, bears only a slight resemblance to what went before. Exuberant Greeks swarmed him and his family in the wee hours of the morning after he had won. The only way the family ever got to the subway stop near Olympic Stadium was when Tim heeded Arlene's advice and hid the gold medal inside his jacket, else they would have been there all night.

In many ways, an Olympic gold medal defines an athlete. Years from now, the name Tim Mack will mean a lofty height scaled. Still, in some ways, it is what you do when you come down that is most important.

"That's the first thing I thought of after I won, that I did not want this to change me as a person," he said. "The gold medal is something bigger than I am. I always had an image of what gold medal winners were like. You know, people like Jesse Owens. That I am actually one of them is surreal."

They are humble words, from a man who knows his roots are in hard work and dedication. Still, how surreal would a second goal medal be in 2008?

"I think I'm going to change the Web site to RepeatNBeijing," Mack said.

This was in the local Knoxville paper. It's a great article


Mack's Gold Rush
Perseverance pays off with Olympic glory

By MIKE STRANGE, strange2@knews.com
October 3, 2004

"Hey, you're a gold medalist."

When Tim Mack returned to his adopted hometown this week as an Olympic champion he was curious as to the reception he would get. Football, after all, was up and running. Orange fever was in full bloom.


Advertisement




He got his answer at the license tag renewal counter.

"Hey, you're a gold medalist.''

He got his answer paying an overdue furniture bill.

"Hey, you're a gold medalist.''

"People recognize me in Europe,'' Mack said, "but I didn't know if they'd recognize me here.''

After he lifted his body over that golden pole-vault bar in Athens, Greece, on the evening of Aug. 27, 31-year-old Tim Mack fell to earth a changed man, not to mention a more recognizable one.

For a guy who scraped through years of anonymous training and financial sacrifice, ascending the Olympic pinnacle is nothing short of amazing.

For a community that has enjoyed a give-and-take relationship with Mack, it's a hoot.

"There are not enough good things you can say about Tim Mack, completely away from the athletic arena,'' said Marty Sonnenfeldt, director of the Knoxville Track Club youth program.

"What he's done for this area has been extraordinary.''

High-fiving over the phone Mack was born and raised in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, Ohio, but has called Knoxville home since 1993. That's when he transferred to the University of Tennessee from little Malone College in Ohio.

"I had to get out of the snow,'' Mack said.

He had a nice couple of years vaulting at UT, winning an NCAA indoor title in 1995.

Still, he was overshadowed by teammate Lawrence Johnson, who would go on to win silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

No one, not even Mack's longtime coach Jim Bemiller, would have predicted then that Olympic gold was in Mack's future.

Mack hung around, transitioning to the spartan life of a pro vaulter, earning a Master's degree at UT, paying bills as a fitness trainer.

"There were times,'' he said, "when I was like, 'I'm 28, come on, I should have a house or a condo or whatever. What am I doing?'

"My dad was still sending me money. If I won a competition for 500 bucks, that was a lot of money.''

But he always found time to give back, especially to the KTC youth program.

Even in the summer leading up to the Olympics, Mack could be found vaulting with the kids at Tom Black Track.

"You don't get too many guys who have reached that level willing to give back to the kids,'' Sonnenfeldt said.

"There's a group here in town and we keep track of Mack. Our kids keep track of Mack.

"(During the Games,) People are calling back and forth following it. It's almost like we were high-fiving over the phone lines.''


Goldinathens.com After the disappointment of an eighth-place finish at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento and a ninth-place finish at the 2001 World Championships in Canada, Mack realized he had to make some changes.

"On a good day with good conditions he could compete with anybody,'' said Bemiller. "But if it wasn't perfect conditions, he wasn't quite strong enough and his technique wasn't quite good enough.''

Bemiller has coached Mack since he came to UT. A fellow Ohioan, Bemiller has been a volunteer coach for the Vols since 1985 while earning a law degree and entering private practice.

This fall he has returned to UT as a faculty member.

"You don't make a living being a pole-vault coach,'' Bemiller said. "So I had to drop back and do something else.''

Mack decided it was time to turn it up a notch if he wanted to break into vaulting's inner circle.

One of the first things he did after the Trials in Sacramento was change his e-mail address to include the mantra "goldinathens.''

"Just to plant the seed,'' he said.

"And, you know, that was the last thing I thought of (before his gold-medal jump). I told myself, 'You didn't pick silverinathens. You will clear this.' ''

After finishing out of the money in Canada in '01, he and Bemiller agreed he had to get stronger.

The pole vault is a violent pursuit. Running full speed and then planting the pole in the box to begin the lift-off is a jolting transition.

"I've heard (vaulter) Earl Bell say it's like riding in a convertible and reaching up and grabbing an overpass,'' said Bemiller.

Mack worked with weights. Gymnastics coach Phil Savage improved Mack's airborne technique.

Sports psychologist Joe Whitney toughened Mack between the ears.

"Mentally,'' said Mack, "I had to be a stone out there.''

Russell Johnson, a former UT vaulter, illustrated the benefits of keeping meticulous notes on which poles worked in various conditions.

Gradually, Mack evolved into a guy who could compete anywhere, in any conditions.

His breakthrough came in winning the Goodwill Games in 2001. The following year, he won the USA indoor title.

Those successes attracted enough financial support to give up his day job at the National Fitness Center on Tazewell Pike.

"I was able to train twice a day,'' Mack said. "That's a huge difference.''


Return to Sacramento In the summer of 2003, Mack finished sixth at the World Championships in Paris. The Olympic countdown had begun.

When he returned to Sacramento for the 2004 Olympic Trials, he was a different athlete than he had been four years earlier.

That he won the Trials over Toby Stevenson, clearing 19 feet, 4 inches, was no more than a mild upset if one at all.

In the five weeks leading up to the Olympics, Mack headed to Europe to stay in form. Beating a world-class field in Zurich, Switzerland, lifted his confidence.

"Everybody there was going to be at the Games,'' he said. "It was like I knew I could do it, but I needed to do it against these guys.''

In Athens, the vault came late in the schedule. In the interim, the U.S. training camp on the island of Crete was the perfect retreat.

Bemiller's arrival buoyed his spirits. At the last minute, Knoxville pal Tim O'Hare showed up, too.

"Every day,'' said Mack, "I was getting confidence from something.''

On a Wednesday, Mack made the 16-man cut for the finals. No sweat.

Friday was the day of reckoning. Determined to stay focused, Mack virtually avoided his parents and four siblings who came to Athens.

"I didn't even want to know where they were sitting,'' Mack said. "My mom would be telling me things and I would cut her off in mid-sentence.

"After the fact, I told them I was sorry I was a jerk, but it worked.''


Get away from the bar Once the finals began, Mack felt good. When the bar reached 19 feet, 6 1/4 inches, only the two Americans remained, but Stevenson led for the gold based on fewer misses at a lower height.

Each missed his first two attempts at the height, which represented an Olympic record and, for Mack, a personal-best.

Mack's final attempt would determine the difference between silverinathens and goldinathens. It was the moment of truth.

"I knew three strides from the box I was going to have a great shot at it,'' Mack said. "I can tell by my posture.

"In the middle of the jump, I thought I was going to hit (the bar) going up. But I think that's one bar I actually willed myself over. It was not my best jump of the day.''

As his body reached its zenith, he was clear. His immediate thought: Get away from the bar.

On the way down, he knew he had won gold.

"I've been looking at a picture,'' he said. "I don't know, but I think it was that last jump. The hair on my arms is standing on end. My hair doesn't do that.''

When he landed to the roar of the crowd, Mack instinctively pumped his arms. Then a realization shook him to the core.

Stevenson had one more jump left.

"I slammed the door shut (on thinking of winning),'' Mack said. "I knew he was going to make it and the crowd was going to go crazy and I told myself to get ready to jump 19-8.''

As Stevenson regrouped for his final jump, Mack looked away. He never watches the competition. The crowd told him Stevenson missed. Goldinathens.


A nod from Bubka The medal ceremony was the next evening, affording Mack a glorious day to let the enormity of what he had done begin to sink in.

As he returned to the stadium, from underneath, looking out through the tunnel, he could see the podium bathed in the light of a gorgeous night.

And he could see waiting to present the medals, the legend himself, Sergey Bubka.

"Me being on that podium, it was not what I did,'' Mack said. "Yeah, I had to perform, but it's just a product of all the help I've had through the years.

"I really wanted to enjoy it and think about all the people that made it possible.''

All the people back home in Ohio. All the people high-fiving over the phone lines back in Knoxville.

"I looked over at Bubka and he's looking straight at me,'' Mack said. "He gave me a nod, like 'good job.' A thumbs-up from Sergey Bubka.

"Then I remembered, don't try to sing because you're going to screw it up.''

Singing the national anthem was the one facet of the Olympic experience Mack had not prepared for.

"I didn't want to jinx myself,'' he said.


Onward, upward No jinx. No fluke. After Athens, Mack stayed in Europe and won several more competitions before flying home to Tennessee.

In Monaco on Sept. 18, he became the 12th man ever to clear 6 meters (19-8 1/4).

"I think he can break the world record (6.14 meters),'' said Bemiller, "and I'm pretty conservative in what I go around spouting.''

Mack turned 32 on Sept. 15. He's never felt better. The 2008 Olympics in China are very much a possibility.

In the meantime, the financial pressure is off.

"I can pretty much guarantee I'll be in the major meets for the next four years,'' said Mack. "Not just in them, but in them with an appearance (fee).''

For a few weeks, he will kick back and enjoy the moment. After the whirlwind visit to Knoxville, more celebration waited in Cleveland.

One of the congratulatory messages on his answering machine was from Lawrence Johnson, his old teammate.

"We respect the heck out of each other,'' Mack said.

Respect is an attribute Mack has earned in spades, from the world vaulting fraternity and from the Knoxville community that pulled for its nice guy to finish first.

The grinder did it. He reached the top. And he's as amazed as anyone.

"I'm trying to figure it out myself,'' Mack said. "Sooner or later, I'm going to understand it and figure out what happened.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6726 or strange2@knews.com.

Copyright 2004, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
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Story from the Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Edition of the Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio)


Mack learning to enjoy fame


Paul Heyse
The Chronicle-Telegram
Celebrity status hasn’t totally caught up with Tim Mack.
The adjustment to his newly acquired fame has been an experience in itself for the 2004 Olympic gold medal-winning pole vaulter.
The Westlake native captured gold on Aug. 27 in Athens with an Olympic-record pole vault mark of 19 feet, 61/4 inches. He’s the first Ohioan to both qualify for and win Olympic gold in pole vault since 1908.
Mack came back to visit Northeast Ohio recently for the first time since the Olympic Games. He spoke to the students both at his home parish, St. Bernadette’s in Westlake, then to his alma mater â€â€