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Pole vaulting is an event of high and lows.

There's so much more important parts other than pole vaulting.

What makes the vault so spectacular is because it's a very athletic type of event, where it needs a lot of speed, a lot of explosive action and, of course, great coordination.

I like underwater pole vaulting, because you can have perfect form without the risk.

It's hard to pass up a pole vault opportunity here in Des Moines. The crowd was so great when I was at the mall and I was pumped up and I thought technically I was on and I figured where else to open up my outdoor season than here.

We started with that, basically to help kids, and then we created a pole vault school, which is part of the club and exists to this day. The club and school exist.

The strategy of my coach and me was that we looked at pictures of all the best pole vaulters from around the world, and we took the best parts from them, and we created a person that had never existed. We then started to work toward being such a person.

I have bought pole vault equipment, the landing areas, posts, which costs a lot of money. We pay for coaches.

Environmental scientists in Canada said it was impossible for me to get to the Pole in 2004... I said 'no,' it's still OK, and I can still get there, and I did.

When people ask me about my story, I just go through the positive stuff: the tent-pole moments, the big landmark checkpoints.