For almost her whole life, Amy Fryt has had lofty ambitions. The sophomore pole vaulter has dreamed of going to the Olympics since she first stepped onto a gymnastics mat as a child.
Like many top vaulters, Fryt first competed in a different sport: gymnastics. The body control and upper-body strength developed by gymnasts translates well to pole vaulting, and like many athletes before her, Fryt followed that path when she got to high school.
"I just knew when I got to high school that I wanted to pole vault," Fryt said. "I guess you just have to have the same crazy mindset to do pole vault as gymnastics."
Fryt made the transition easily. The Goldsboro, NC native reached a height of 11 feet-8 inches in high school, and qualified for the North Carolina state competition all four years.
Both Fryt's vaulting skill and her Olympic dreams were boosted in the summer of 2005 with a week-long training session spent at the Arkansas training center of Earl Bell, one of the best-known pole vaulting coaches in the country. While there, she practiced alongside Olympians Derek Miles and Jeff Hartwig, who held the American outdoor record in the event at the time. They even signed a pair of spikes for her.
Two years later, Fryt joined her brother, Jesse, at Duke and she decided to put her Olympic dream in permanent ink.
"I have a tattoo of the Olympic rings on my right shoulder," Fryt said. "I got it last year, to remind myself of my ultimate goal, my intentions."
While Fryt believes she has a legitimate chance of reaching the Olympics, she stays humble and takes nothing for granted. When she mentions her hopes for the future, it is in terms of wishes, desires and aspirations, not plans. At this point, it is a long-term goal that will still take a lot of effort to achieve.
"I haven't really thought about it to that extent, but if I have the shot to get to the [Olympic] trials, that's an accomplishment in itself," Fryt said. "The Olympics would be my ultimate goal. I can't say where I'll be three years from now, but as long as I stay healthy and keep on the same track I'm on now, I want to end up there."
With the minimum qualifying standard for the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials set at 13-9, Fryt has less than a foot to go before she becomes eligible. Her personal outdoor best stands at 12-11 1/2.
Only a sophomore, Fryt is already Duke's second-highest vaulter in history.
The one woman who has vaulted higher wearing a Blue Devil jersey is Jillian Schwartz, a 2004 Olympian in Athens. Schwartz attended the meet at which Fryt hit her highest vault to date, a 13-1 1/2 clear during the indoor season this winter.
Fryt's current track puts her right on pace with the Olympian. She is less than four inches shy of Schwartz's college indoor best of 13-5 1/4, and 14 inches short of Schwartz's pace outdoors, where Schwartz's 14-2 lies as the Duke record.
Before chasing the Olympic dream, though, Fryt hopes to excel in college competition-starting this weekend at the ACC outdoor championships, which begin today.
"I'm just trying to do my best each meet," Fryt said. "I try not to worry about the other girls out there, but it's one of the toughest conferences out there, and the fact that they're out there drives me to improve."
This mindset in taking on tough competition has worked well for her. Two weeks ago, Fryt won her event at the Duke Invitational by clearing an outdoor personal best of 12-11 1/2 on a last-chance, sudden-death vault to break a tie for first place and qualify for NCAA regionals. The win was her third in a string of four straight victories in outdoor competition, leaving Fryt unbeaten in the open air this spring.
Although Fryt hopes this weekend to improve on her second-place finish in the indoor ACC meet, Fryt feels that her clearing regional qualifying heights multiple times has already made the season a success. Everything above that is just icing on the cake.
"This year my goal was to make it to [NCAA] regionals, and I did that," Fryt said. "Nationals, I'm not worried about yet, but we'll see what happens."
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