In This Issue
High Expectations
Gryphon high jumper is looking for gold at CIS championships in Montreal
BY DAVID DICENZO
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Gryphon track-and-field star Michelle Moody has her sights set on soaring to new heights in the high jump competition at the national championships in Montreal. Here, she eyes the bar set at 1.75 metres, which she jumped at provincial finals, but her goal is 1.80 metres. Photo by Martin Schwalbe |
As Gryphon track-and-field star Michelle Moody gets ready for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships next week, she’s hoping the third time will be the charm — or, in this case, the gold. She captured silver at the last two CIS championships and is looking to come out on top — literally — at this year’s competition March 8 to 10 at McGill University.
Moody says her runner-up finish at the 2006 nationals in Saskatoon was particularly hard because she wasn’t really outjumped. She lost on what’s known as a countback — both she and University of Toronto jumper Sarah Boyle failed to clear the final height, but in the previous round, Moody required more jumps for a successful clearance than her counterpart did.
As painful as that loss was, the molecular biology student says she’s used the experience as a motivator throughout her fourth and final season of competition for the Gryphon track-and-field squad.
“It’s my ultimate goal,” Moody says of her desire to drape a CIS gold medal around her neck. “It’s all I think about right now. I try not to put so much pressure on myself that it starts to feel like it’ll be the end of the world if I don’t win. You can’t put that kind of pressure on yourself. But I definitely want to win, and I think I can. I’ve put in the time and effort.”
Moody, a team captain this season, has indeed put in the time, not just in training but also in her school and lab work. She attributes part of her intense focus on all aspects of her life this year to simply maturing. On the field, that focus translated into a 100-per-cent-success rate in the high jump during the regular season, with Moody winning gold at every meet she entered. (She also competed in the long jump.)
Heading into last weekend’s Ontario University Athletic (OUA) championships, the All-Canadian was the top-ranked university high jumper in the country, literally and figuratively setting the bar by jumping 1.75 metres at the Can-Am Classic meet in Windsor in January. She repeated that at the OUA competition, but was outjumped by Boyle, who topped 1.78 metres.
Moody’s personal best is 1.78 metres, and she knows she’ll have to match that or jump better if she hopes to top the podium next week in Montreal.
“I’m really trying for 1.80,” she says, adding that the height has been just a shade out of her grasp. “I’ve been trying for about a year now. I’ll get it one day — I just have to keep training.”
Determination is a quality U of G track-and-field coach Dave Scott-Thomas says he saw in Moody from the moment she first walked into his office. It was during the spring of her senior year at Newmarket High, and she was making an impromptu visit to campus with her parents.
“Michelle is one of those pleasant surprises that you find as a coach,” says Scott-Thomas. “She had all of the psychological and emotional wiring but hadn’t done the physical stuff. But when she got here, she added all the physical tools and took off like a rocket.”
Moody, who didn’t actually take up the high jump until late in her high school career, was originally recruited for the long jump and triple jump at U of G, but in her first year, she asked Scott-Thomas if she could try the high jump. She quickly began to excel at the sport and ended up entering the junior nationals in Saskatoon. Moody says she shocked even herself by winning gold.
“I called my parents, and my mom said: ‘What? I didn’t know you were that good.’ It was one of those things where it was just what I was supposed to do because I got really good at it really quickly.”
Moody says she enjoys the fact that high jump is a crowd-pleasing event, and although she admits she gets a little freaked out when everything goes quiet, she has evolved into a real clutch performer, saving her best for the biggest stages.
Scott-Thomas says she has the ability to “perform on demand,” a sports psychology term that refers to an athlete preparing to peak at a specific time.
“We knew a year ago what she had to prepare for — the CIS finals,” he says. “There’s no ambiguity about it. In Montreal, at this time, on this date, you have to jump this high. You can’t be ready a day early or a day late. You know what you have to do. The question is, can you walk into that competitive environment and do it? That’s one of Michelle’s advantages. She is pretty fearless at big meets. She doesn’t carry any baggage with her and she wants to succeed. To be a real elite athlete, you have to have that. She has the ability to go there and take risks, push the boundaries and not be afraid of it.”
Scott-Thomas says Moody is a shining example of the best the CIS and OUA have to offer, a dedicated student and athlete who reaches out to her teammates. “I’d take as many Michelle Moodys as we can get,” he says.
All the skills she’s gained on and off the field are coming into play as she prepares for the final meet of her university career. Although she has another year of eligibility, she plans to graduate this year with her B.Sc. and may head to Australia in early 2008 to pursue a teaching degree. She says she plans to continue competing independently once she’s done school and work, but for now, her goal is just to get that CIS gold.
Moody says she relishes the chance to jump one last time in “the intimate and exhilarating environment” of a university meet, surrounded by supportive team members and friends.
“The biggest thing I’ll miss is the practices every day,” she says, referring to her track-and-field family at U of G. “It’s so hard to stay motivated, to go out and run and jump when you don’t have your friends around. Here, it’s so easy. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.”