What a difference a year makes. In June 2007, Jeff Hartwig of Arkansas was a run-of-the-mill world-class pole vaulter, taking second at the U.S. open national championships in Indianapolis with a mark of 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches and qualifying for the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Nice, but ho-hum. He got little attention.
Sunday in Eugene, Ore., Hartwig took second in the U.S. Olympic Trials with a jump of 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches and made the U.S. team for the Beijing Olympic Games. Now Hartwig is a combination of Yoda and Superman -- prized for his wisdom and celebrated for his strength. Attention was being paid.
The difference? Hartwig is now 40.
Last September, when he celebrated the big Four-Oh, Hartwig graduated from being the reigning American record holder to the poster boy of Masters track. (I chronicled his every age-group record.) He lost his American record to Brad Walker this season -- but exacted revenge by beating him at the Trials.
Lynn Zinser featured him in The New York Times. The Eugene Register-Guard, flooding the zone with dozens of stories, detailed Hartwig's trials and tribulations. The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, USA Today, ESPN and dozens of foreign papers ate up his story, now legend -- how he made the 1996 Atlanta team, no-heighted at the 2000 Trials, failed again at the 2004 Trials and declared that there was "absolutely" no chance he'd try again in 2008.
After accepting his silver medal and taking a victory lap in Eugene, waving a small American flag, Hartwig spent a half-hour with the world press Sunday night explaining how he made a second Olympic team 12 years after his first.
"I never thought as a 36-year-old that it would be possible to be anywhere close to this level as a 40-year-old," Hartwig said. "And yet, I attribute my success as a 40-year-old to the fact that I've just never quit.. . . . If I thought I could go 10 more years (in the elite ranks), I would. I absolutely love the sport that much. This is certainly the way I want to go out, and I can tell you, pretty much guaranteed, for sure, that I'm done after this year."
That last remark might be taken with a grain of salt, but his delicious Masters feat deserves to be savored.
Some perspective:
At 40, Hartwig is the oldest American to make the U.S. team in the pole vault -- and easily the only man his age to make the Olympic "A" standard of 5.70 meters (18-8 1/4). Even if Hartwig had made the team with a lower clearance, he still had a qualifying mark from last winter, when he jumped 5.71 meters (18-8 3/4) indoors.
Now go back to 1954. That's when Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4-minute mile. When did man first take a giant leap over 18 feet in the vault? Not until 1970. On the IAAF decathlon scoring tables, a 5.70 vault is worth 1132 points. That's more than a 10.00 in the 100 (1096 points), and is equivalent (in points) to a 7-8 high jump.
And on June 22, 1976, American Dave Roberts raised the world record in the pole vault to 5.70. The meet locale? Eugene, Oregon.
In the course of explaining his elite longevity, Hartwig also recalled the advice given him by former Masters indoor world record holder Earl Bell, a fellow Olympian: Don't ignore aches and pains. Treat minor injuries as major injuries.
Now it's time to think the unthinkable: Can a man who turns 41 on Sept. 25 win a medal in the Summer Olympic Games on Aug. 22, the day of the men's pole vault final?
Consider this: Hartwig's best mark in 2007 was 19-2 1/4. This season, only three men in the world have exceeded that mark -- American Walker, Australian Steven Hooker and Russian Evgeniy Lukyanenko.
Can lightning strike twice? Absolutely.
