Anna Rogowska (POL) (© Getty Images)
With an Olympic bronze and a European Indoor silver medals already secured, Anna Rogowska is in the process of becoming the undisputed number two in the women’s Pole Vault. Janus Rozum met with the 23-year-old European who foresees a 5-metre clearance in her near future.
The willing to prove that as a nation they are the ones blazing the trail for others, willingly undertaking new challenges may be considered as one of the main strengths of the Polish. And this is particularly true for Polish women, proud of Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz - the first female sailor to circumnavigate the world - or Wanda Rutkiewicz - the first European to reach the top of Mount Everest.
When Halina Konopacka won the Discus Throw gold medal at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games, the first edition of the modern era allowing women to take part, it marked the beginning of a beautiful story of women athletics in Poland, where the national championships were first held 6 years earlier (one year sooner than the US)!
It is not a surprise to see how nowadays Polish women approve of the introduction of new events in the athletics programme. In the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games 17-year-old Kamila Skolimowska became the first Olympic champion in the women’s Hammer Throw.
In the still growing but highly competitive Pole Vault event there have been two leading figures in the past couple of years: Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbayeva, both from Russia. However, behind them two representatives of Poland are rapidly catching up and starting to regularly claim international medals. Indeed Monika Pyrek and Anna Rogowska battled it out for bronze at last year’s Olympic Games in Athens and the two Poles also returned from the Madrid European Indoor Championships with a medal each, silver for Rogowska and bronze for Pyrek.
Now while Pyrek’s world class status is reckoned with since she won silver at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Annecy 1998, it wasn’t until shortly before the Athens contest that Rogowska was truly noticed.
Rogowska was born on 21 March 1981 in Gdynia, part of the so called Triple City (three big cities, lying close to each other: Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia). Her parents - her mother is a post office clerk and her father is a device restorer in a nursery school - were never really into sport and although her brother did not dislike the odd sport competition he never signed in for any sport club of any sort.
On the other hand, young Anna was keen to take part in as many school competitions as possible with a little preference for basketball and handball. At the age of 13, she used to run long distance and cross country races and she would inevitable finish among the top three. Every year the highlight of her running season would be the traditional 1 Mile run along the beaches of the Baltic sea. Today Rogowska admits that she never thought she might be so successful at running; that the force that drove her to the finish line was her hatred to lose whatever the competition.
Her athletics career took a turn when she turned 14 and her physical education teacher decided to sign her to the nearby athletics club: MTS Junior Sopot. There she specialised in hurdling events under the guidance of Ewa Kiczela, herself a hurdles specialist. While young Anna was amassing success after success in her three years as a sprint hurdler, women’s Pole Vault was dramatically gaining popularity in Triple City.
A 5.45m jumper, 22-year-old Przemyslaw Gurin was called upon to introduce young athletes with the basics of this event. It is Przemyslaw who taught 16-year-old Anna how to jump. She recalls that after two weeks of “fun with the pole” she took part in a competition, where she cleared 2.40m. Although she mastered the basic technique of pole vaulting very quickly, Rogowska was not ready yet for a switch and she pursued her hurdling career while jumping from time to time to help her club score a few extra points.
However in 1999 Rogowska twisted her ankle during a basketball game and was forced to put her hurdling on halt for a while. In the meantime her athletic club had hired a Pole Vault coach and therefore the young woman decided to give it a serious thought. In her mind it would be easier to become a leading sports figure in the Pole Vault rather than in the hurdles. Starting with a junior personal best of 3.60m, 19-year-old Rogowska would spend more and more time with Jacek Torlinski, who despite being just two years older ended his competitive career and began coaching her.
At the beginning training was tough and after just a few months she injured the lower part of her backbone and was forced to stop training for six months. In 2001 she competed only 3 times and jumped her season best in Salgótarján, Hungary, but it was only 3.90m.
Back in Poland she was hardly known, but the Polish Pole Vault guru, charismatic coach Edward Szymczak still saw great potential in her and he declared that by the following season Rogowska would be jumping only a little lower than multiple national champion Monika Pyrek. His words seamed unrealistic, as Pyrek had just won the World Championships bronze medal and had already jumped higher than 4.60m.
His prediction couldn’t have been more accurate.
The 2002 season proved to be excellent. Already on 5 January she jumped 4.10m and early in February she managed to jump a personal best of 4.30m in Tsaotun, Taiwan. Although she didn’t do well at the national championships she was included in the Polish team for the European Indoor Championships in Vienna, where in her debut international competition she did not qualify for the final. That would remain the first and last time she did not qualify for a championships final.
Today she considers her international debut as quite a good one. “I jumped only 10 cm below my personal best. I have nothing to be ashamed of. What I’m proud of is that I have never ended a competition with a No Height,” she said.
Since her first international appearance in Vienna everything went smoothly for Rogowska. She finished a very good 7th at the European Championships in Munich where in the qualification round she improved her personal best to 4.40m. In that same competition Monika Pyrek failed to qualify. It was Rogowska’s first victory over her more famous and titled compatriot.
The following year was confirmation time for Rogowska who was consistently clearing 4.40m and achieved two excellent results at the IAAF World Championships: in Birmingham (indoor) she was 6th and in Paris she was 7th. 2003 also brought her first international medal as she won bronze at the European U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
After the Paris World Championships Torlinski, her coach and by then also her fiancé began putting emphasis on the gymnastic part of her training regime. After all many pole vaulters began their sports careers as gymnasts. After changing her training routine, Rogowska’s performances dramatically improved and she vaulted no fewer than 12 times 4.50m or more during the Olympic year while her 2003 season best was ‘only’ 4.47!
Rogowska actually began her breakthrough 2004 season with a 7th place finish at the Budapest World Indoor Championships. But what the young Polish will certainly never forget are her three summer competitions in Greece. In Iraklo she equalled the Polish record clearing 4.65m and two weeks later in Thessaloniki she improved on that result by 1 cm before jumping 4.71m a few minutes later.
And that is when she became one of the major favourites for winning an Olympic medal.
In Athens, similarly to her previous competitions she had difficulties in the qualification round where she needed three attempts to jump 4.45m, as she unnecessarily skipped 4.40m - the height requested to advance to the final.
In the final Rogowska mastered her technique to perfection although she had a scare at 4.55m and sailed to clear 4.65m and 4.70m with her first attempts. She took a well deserved bronze medal and became the undisputable leader of the women’s Pole Vault in Poland.
At the Madrid European Indoor Championships Rogowska confirmed she has definitely reached maturity. She took only 3 jumps in the qualification round to advance to the final where after easily claiming the silver medal with a second attempt clearance at 4.75 she failed to improve her Polish record to 4.80m.
Rogowska doesn’t consider herself as a perfect pole vaulter. She is fast and fit, but she still wants to improve. One of her wishes is to try and lengthen her run-up from 14 to 16 steps and she also impatiently awaits her new 460 cm poles.
Her early international successes surprised even herself and she still feels like a novice among her competitors most of whom have been jumping for years. Although a year younger than her, Isinbayeva won her first World Championship title 6 years ago in Bydgoszcz!
But Rogowska has full confidence in Torlinski’s training routine as his Pole Vault career is much longer than hers. Torlinski’s father was fascinated by this event and although he himself hasn’t had any success competitively, he passed his passion on to both of his sons.
“We’ve been together for almost 5 years,” says Rogowska about her relationship with Torlinski. To celebrate their Athens success the couple rented a new flat and only a few months later they managed to buy their own flat thanks to the Olympic bonuses and previous savings. They are now planning to move in in May, just before the outdoor season.
Rogowska’s second passion is decorating apartments. She spends most of her free time preparing the furniture for their flat and buying specialist magazines. She knows it will take a lot of time, as they are home very seldom and her training takes up most of her day. Even after the exhausting Olympic season she only took 9 days off!
Rogowska is also keen not to neglect her studies at the Academy of Physical Education in Gdansk (major in tourism and recreation). She does not have any professional plans at the moment and wants to fully concentrate on her athletics career.
And Rogowska’s plans for the future are clear. She doesn’t want to focus on beating Isinbayeva; her objective is to break her own barriers. She wants to improve her technique, master the new poles and try to jump above 4.80m regularly this summer.
She also said that she should jump over 5 metres in the next few seasons. For her it is just a matter of time and most of her fans can’t but agree with her.
An internet users wrote: “when I saw Anna’s face on the run-up fighting for the Olympic medal, I looked into her eyes and I was sure she would clear the bar.”
Such is the determination of this charming blonde from the Baltic seaside!
Published in IAAF Magazine Issue 1 - 2005
