Stress raised bar for Gabriella Duclos (Arizona)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/sports/52685.php

Stress raised bar for pole vault champ
JUSTIN ADLER
Tucson Citizen

Pac-10 women's pole vault champion Gabriella Duclos remembers breaking down and crying in Arizona coach Fred Harvey's office early in her freshman year.
The stress of getting into classes, finding housing and adjusting to college - all while barely speaking English - was too much for the then-17-year-old Duclos, a native of French-speaking Quebec City.
She arrived in August 2006, never having committed or applied to UA. To top it off, she missed her initial flight after being stuck in Canadian customs for more than two hours.
"I didn't think she was even going to come," UA assistant coach Sheldon Blockburger said. "Then it's the first day of school, (her father) calls me up and says, 'Can you get her from the airport tonight?' "
When she got to UA, there was no on-campus housing available.
"It was pretty terrible," said Duclos, who slept on a couch in a teammate's living room for two weeks until she found housing. "I went to see coach Harvey, and I cried. It was just too much."
Harvey reassured her that she'd "made it this far" and told her to "take it one day at a time."
"If it was going to all be for naught, it would have happened by now," Harvey said. "I let her know my (office) door is always open."
After applying to UA on the first day of the school year, she was admitted within the week. Then the coaches undertook a "mad scramble" to find classes for her, which she began on the second week of school, Blockburger said.
"I couldn't understand a word of what my teacher was saying, but I got used to it pretty fast," Duclos said. "I was doing all the reading, and every word I couldn't understand I was looking up. It took me 15 minutes to read one page."
Duclos also had a tough time adjusting to the 20-hour practice weeks and weight-lifting sessions.
"I never really lifted weights," said Duclos, whose high school regimen involved only jumping three days a week. "My body was freaking out when I did all the training. I was tired the entire year."
She described her sophomore year as "200 times better."
And her comfort and confidence have translated into success with the pole vault as well. This season Duclos broke the Canadian junior record with a jump of 4.20 meters, and she won the Pac-10 title with that same height.
"Her attitude has changed so much," men's pole vaulter Nick Mossberg, a junior, said. "Before, she was more timid, and she didn't really get our sense of humor. Now she understands our jokes and our constructive criticism, and she applies it."
This summer Duclos will compete for the Canadian Junior National Team in the Pan-Am Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
If she continues to progress, there's a chance she will compete for Canada in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"(She will) achieve a lot of things in life," Harvey said, "because (she) is never going to give up."

[inkadidas]

and she braved jumping in the rain at texas relays!!!

[belmore]

actually it was sleeting! It was really nasty and cold, that girl is tough.