Lacy Janson: Olympic debut

SARASOTA — No matter how hard she thought about it, there was just no possible way it could be done.
It required such precision.

And the odds of getting a 12- to 14-foot pole into the space of what appeared to be the size of donut seemed to be stacked against her well before she walked to the starting line.

“I thought I could never do that because it must require such accuracy,” Janson said. “How in the world do you run full-speed and put a pole in that little, tiny thing?”

Now, 16 years after watching Dan O’Brien pole vault in the decathlon of the 1996 Summer Olympics, Janson realized the improbable is, in fact, possible.

The Sarasota native and 2001 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School cleared 14 feet, 9 inches to claim the final spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team June 24, at Hayward Field, in Eugene, Ore. — the site of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.

“It’s always been a dream of mine,” Janson said. “You think it’s going to be like you can’t contain yourself, but, for me, it was more dream-like. It didn’t sink in. It felt great and it felt good, but I was still kind of numb, maybe.

“It’s a big thing to comprehend,” Janson said. “I think that once I get there and I’m walking out, then it’ll sink in. It’s an incredible relief to just know that I did what I needed to do at the right time. Later, that’s when I really think it’ll sink in the magnitude of it all.”

FLYING HIGH
A natural athlete, it wasn’t until Janson was participating in a volleyball camp at Florida State University that the notion of running track even entered her mind.

“I was a middle hitter, and we were doing blocking drill; they had me going everywhere and I was just dead tired,” Janson said. “I was lying in bed sweaty; and I was so tired that I thought, ‘I have to get in shape or I’m not going to be able to hold up in college.’”

Janson walked onto the track for the first time during her junior year at Cardinal Mooney. At the time, the team was relatively unorganized and Janson bounced around between the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the long jump, the high jump and the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

But that all changed when Janson’s curiosity got the best of her.

“I wanted to see how big the box actually was,” Janson said. “I went over to check it out, and it was a lot bigger than I thought.”

Cougars pole vault coach John Raleigh approached Janson and asked her to give the event a try. Janson was skeptical at first.

“I thought the pole vaulters looked funny doing drills and walking around with their poles,” Janson said.

Raleigh held the pole in the box for Janson while she ran down and grabbed the pole; he helped fling her in the pit. Janson repeated the process three or four times before Raleigh told her to try it herself.

“He just said, ‘Hold really low and just feel your way — nothing is going to happen to you when you’re four feet off of the ground … You’ll be fine,’” Janson said. “I did it, and I survived. It was easy. I started running faster and just gradually worked my way up. From that day on, I vaulted in practice every day.”

Janson went on to clear 11 feet, 6 inches her junior year before finishing sixth at the indoor national championships.

At that point, Raleigh realized the future was bright for Janson.

“We still laugh about it, because I had pulled her mom aside at the end of her junior year and told her there’s a very good chance she’ll go to the Olympic Trials,” Raleigh said. “You always have athletes at different levels; and everything told me if she really liked the event and wanted to do it, then there was a great future for her, for sure.”

Janson finished as the state runner-up her senior year, before winning the high school national championships a month later in North Carolina and the 2001 Junior Pan American Games in Argentina.

It was while competing in those national meets that Janson was recognized by Florida State and eventually earned a scholarship.

But FSU wasn’t the only one watching Janson at the time. Janson’s younger siblings, Kristen, Brittany and Charles, all watched their older sister excel in the sport, and it wasn’t long before they all followed suit.

“She makes it look so easy and fun that we wanted to do it, too,” said Brittany Janson, who is now the pole vault coach for The Out-of-Door Academy. “I liked how different it was from anything else. Nobody did it. She had so much fun, and I thought, ‘If she can win, then I can win.’

“She is good at everything she does,” Brittany Janson says. “She’s the most competitive, strong and athletic person I know, so it didn’t surprise me at all.”

Janson spent four years competing for Florida State, where she was the 2003 indoor pole vault national champion, a four-time All-American, a six-time Atlantic Coast Conference pole vault champion and a six-time All-ACC honoree.

“I always think what if I had gone to a different school or had a different coach,” Janson said. “Things worked out really nicely, and I’m very grateful for that.”

LIFELONG DREAM FULFILLED
After missing three straight attempts at 14 feet, 11 inches, Janson walked away from the pit and turned her back on the rest of the competition.

At that point, Janson’s fate was in the hands of Mary Saxer. Both Janson and Saxer had cleared 14 feet 9 inches; and if Saxer made her final attempt at 14 feet, 11 inches, then Janson’s hopes of making her first Olympic team would be dashed.

“That was pretty scary, because after that last miss, I had no control anymore,” Janson said. “Whatever she did determined me and what I was going to end up dealing with. Luckily, it wasn’t too long that I had to wait to find out.”

Janson, who hadn’t watched a single competitor jump all day, stood with her back to the pole vault and listened for the crowd’s reaction. And, as an “ugh” reverberated through the stadium, Janson knew her Olympic dream had finally become a reality, much to the excitement of her parents, Chuck and Laurie, younger sister Kristen, who traveled 10 hours from Lake Tahoe to watch her sister compete, and her fiancé, Warren Harper, whom she will wed Dec. 29, in Tallahassee.

“The crowd kind of got excited at first, and then they went, ‘ugh,’ and I went, ‘Oh, my gosh. I’m on the team,’” Janson said. “Just for my sister to be there to support me meant a lot. It feels really nice. She’s my sister (so) I know she supports me, but just to see all of the support was really great.

“We all kind of went through the same thing,” Janson said. “It was definitely fun to remember after our feelings and what we all saw. It was cool that we got to share it together.”

Back home in Sarasota, her siblings, Brittany and Charles, and Raleigh had their iPads and computers set to receive live updates from the meet, as they anxiously waited to see whether Lacy would make the team.

“I had my gold nails and my USA shirt on,” Brittany Janson said. “I was so ready for this. On that last one when she missed 14 feet, 11 inches, my stomach dropped. I thought it’s all up to Mary and when that X came out I was super excited. I started jumping up and screaming and running around the house.”

“I was on pins and needles — to say it was emotional would be an understatement,” Raleigh said. “It’s any coach’s dream. There are all different kinds of things that can happen when you’re coaching; and Lacy was a great combination of a great athlete and a very hard worker who was willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.” 

“It’s great for her,” Raleigh said. “It’s just so great. She’s one of those who deserves the opportunity, and it’s really awesome that we have somebody so close in town who’s going to be there.” 

And, as she watched her sister proudly wave her American flag around the track for her victory lap, Brittany Janson couldn’t help but feel inspired.

“She looked so excited,” said Brittany Janson, who already booked her ticket to London. “I think that might’ve been the happiest I’ve ever seen her. It’s just indescribable.

“I knew she was that good, but whatever happens, happens,” Brittany Janson said. “She was just on. She never gave up and kept at it. She did it and made it happen, but it’s the best feeling for the whole family. I tell everybody.”

Janson will spend the next few weeks preparing for the London Olympics, which will begin with the opening ceremonies July 27. She will make her Olympic debut in the women’s pole vault qualifier Aug. 5, with the final scheduled for Aug. 6.

“I want to just come out feeling like I made good decisions; that I executed, that I felt good and that I prepared well,” Janson said. “I want to jump well and I want to be competitive. I want to beat the girls that I know I can beat. I just really want to execute.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].