Conant grad closing in on Olympic dreams
A year of hard work and tough breaks have finally come together for a local pole vaulter with Olympic ambitions.
Schaumburg native Darren Niedermeyer will be competing at the University of Oregon on Saturday for a chance to represent the United States in this year's Track and Field World Championships.
“It's been a long journey this year… but now my fitness is the best it's ever been and my jumping is getting better the more I practice,” Niedermeyer said Thursday morning before leaving for Oregon.
A debilitating injury to his jumping leg, a muscle imbalance caused by repeatedly putting too much weight on one side of his left foot while running, set him back for more than six months.
It proved to be a difficult thing to correct.
“I thought I was going down the right path a few times (trying to strengthen the rest of his leg),” Niedermeyer said, “but then that leg was stronger than the other one, so the problem wasn't fixed.”
Finding a place to practice proved to be another challenge. A year ago he qualified to live and train in an Olympic training center near San Diego, Calif., but an overload of athletes at the center left him without a place to go.
Most high schools will not allow the public to use their facilities, and those who will open their doors don't have the equipment to accommodate a world-class vaulter.
Plus, pole vaulting competitions are usually held outside, and the Chicago area isn't known for its consistent weather.
“So where I could be practicing in paradise, 70-degree weather all year long, now I'm trying to fight for facilities.”
The search for a coach was a smoother process; Niedermeyer's previous coach linked him up with Bob Cervenka, who coaches pole vaulting and high jumping at the Jump High Athletic Club in Lisle. An Eastern Illinois University graduate, Cervenka spent a few years at the collegiate level before moving to South Africa, where he had 18 years of coaching success, including training a 2003 high jump World Champion, according to Mike Prizy, a long-time friend of Cervenka.
“(Cervenka) brings a lot to coaching that I've never had in a coach,” Niedermeyer said. “He's been to those big competitions. He knows how to coach an athlete through those big situations.”
Niedermeyer began pole vaulting as a freshman at Conant High School and eventually became a two-time Big Ten Conference champion at Wisconsin (2004, 2005). He continued with the sport after college, working toward these next years of competition.
“This guy has really put his life on hold to try for the World Championships this year, and his goal is to make the Olympic team next summer,” said Prizy.
To make the USA team, Niedermeyer must finish in the top three and jump a height of at least 5.72 meters, about 18 feet and 10 inches. A year ago, he jumped 5.71 meters, just 1 centimeter shy of the mark.
Competitors will have three chances to make each height.
If he makes the cut on Saturday (set to start at 2 p.m. CST), he will head to Daegu, South Korea, for the World Championship meet at the end of August, then return to Oregon for the Olympic trials a year from now.
He will be competing against the sport's elite athletes, a fact that he says won't affect his jumps.
“My biggest challenge is not really the competitors; it's just me being able to do my jump. If that happens, then things just fall into place,” he said. “It's an individual sport, you're not reliant on other people … It's not like football or other contact sports where you have to overcome them, it's about what you do.”
U.S. Track and Field Championships
<b>June 23-26, 2011</b>
Hayward Field - Eugene, OR
<b> On TV:</b> ESPN2, June 24 10:00 pm-12:00 am CT
• ESPN2 Re-air, June 25 12:00 -2:00 pm CT
• Universal, June 25 2:00-3:30 pm CT
• NBC, June 25 4:00-5:00 pm CT
• Universal, June 26 2:00-3:00 pm CT
• NBC, June 26 4:00-5:00 pm CT
• <b>Source:</b> <a href="www.usatf.org"> usatf.org</a>