Heather Hamilton, York University, Pole Vault

Heather is part of the York Varsity Track and Field team, specializing in pole vault. She won silver at the Canadian National Championships and qualified to go compete for Canada at the NACAC Championships. She hopes to be part of the Canadian Olympic team in 2012.

Training is a very important part of your athletics. How much time do you have to put in to compete at such a high level?

Training is the biggest part of my life along with school, so it takes up a lot of my spare time. But my friends and family are very supportive and they know that training comes before many other things like going out partying or any other normal 20-year-old activities. I have a good routine so that definitely helps. Pole vault is a very technical event, so we vault twice per week and our practices usually last for 3-4 hours. We lift weights twice per week and we do gymnastics training on Fridays. The rest of the week we long jump, do hurdle drills, sprint, throw medicine ball. Our event requires running, jumping, gymnastics and many other skills so our training is broken up into a lot of different areas.

Your coach retired and you now work under Arye Rosenoer. What has he done to help you improve?

My coach now has taught me so many things in a matter of only a year and a half. His coaching style focuses on one technical part of the jump at a time so he doesn't overwhelm athletes with corrections. He has so much knowledge about pole vault that it will take me a while to learn everything, but we get along great and I try to be my own coach as well in terms of feeling what I'm doing wrong and knowing how to correct it.

What are your long term goals?

I am aiming for London in 2012. I will be 24 years old so it will be good to go to my first Olympics at a younger age and build on my experiences. My real goal is to be jumping around 4.70(m) to compete at a world-class level, not just qualify to compete at the Olympics.

How did you get interested in your sport?

At first I hated it. I was terrified of vaulting, but slowly I learned and got more comfortable and began to progress very quickly. Pole vault is actually becoming really popular in Canadian high schools and university. It's the sport that everyone wants to try but it seems impossible to get into. If people are interested in vaulting they should firstly see if their high school offers the event. If not, contacting any local track and field club will lead them into the direction of a pole vault program. It's an event that takes many years of experience. So if young athletes are interested in it, they have to be patient to see results. Nothing happens overnight, but it is a great learning experience.

You can track Heather and the rest of York University’s results at http://www.sport.yorku.ca/interuniversity_sport/teams/track_field/index.asp