The Q&A: Chip Heuser
Oklahoma pole vaulter back after fall
The Q&A: Chip Heuser: Oklahoma pole vaulter back after 16-foot fall

By Jenni Carlson

Published: April 26, 2008

Vaulting to extreme heights means having long falls, and Chip Heuser had a fall go terribly wrong in practice six months ago. It nearly killed the Oklahoma pole vaulter. This spring, though, he is back vaulting.

Jenni Carlson: I always knew pole vaulters were a little crazy, but when I heard about your injury, that crystallized it for me.

Chip Heuser: Funny thing about it, it was actually Halloween.

JC: No trick, no treat.

CH: Definitely not. I tricked myself into this one. We were doing a drill. It was a drill simulating the vault in the air called rope vaulting. The set-up we have requires an extra mat behind the pit itself just in case you carry too much momentum and overshoot the pit.

So, of course, you probably know what I did. Forgot the mat. Overshot the pit. Landed from about 16 feet in the air directly on my skull. Fractured my occipital bone, had a contrecoup injury, damage to my poles. Was in the ICU about seven days, was released, then had a seizure and was put back in the ICU for another three days.

JC: Oh, geez.

CH: I had some hemorrhaging ... but luckily, they didn't have to operate. If they would've operated, I would not be vaulting. I'm forced to wear a helmet now when I jump, but it doesn't keep me from wanting to jump again.

JC: You spout all those injuries off like you've heard the terminology a bunch.

CH: Well, I'm pre-med and my father's a surgeon. But I had to learn a lot about my injury. I wanted to know what was going on inside my head.

JC: So, were you working with other guys the day of the injury or solo or what?

CH: I was showing the freshmen how to do the drill. Being a senior, I've done it many times before. Just bad timing on my part, I guess.

JC: For you, then, this was just a normal day.

CH: We do crazy, crazy drills. You always come up with schemes to try to better yourself technically.

JC: What does that particular drill work on?

CH: Technique in the air. How you go up the pole and release, go over the bar, that kind of thing.

JC: Falling from 16 feet, that's a long time to drop. Did you realize what was happening?

CH: Whenever I actually pole vault — run down the runway, plant the pole, swing up — I can always tell when I'm not going to land correctly. In this instance, I don't remember much. I remember letting go of the rope, and that's about it. I woke up about seven days later.

JC: After you were released from the hospital, you had a seizure?

CH: I was in the ICU seven days, released, then the next morning after the release, I suffered the seizure and went right back in the hospital. It was bad.

JC: It's a miracle you're here.

CH: They lost me once right after the initial impact. Then they lost me twice after the seizure in the ambulance.

JC: You essentially died three times. How do you even process something like that?

CH: The funny thing about it is I don't recall much. To me, it's not really ...

JC: Didn't really happen to you?

CH: It hit me three months post injury, right before I came back to school after Christmas break. I had a little bit of a come-to-Jesus moment, I guess, with my parents. They were with me the whole time. They came down from Kentucky. My mom, my poor mother, she was with me the whole time and saw the seizure.

JC: At what point, then, does continuing to pole vault seem like a good idea?

CH: First thing I said when I came to — which I don't remember saying — is, ‘Can I still pole vault?'

JC: Are you kidding?

CH: It's like the old saying, once you fall off the horse, you get right back on. Literally, I fell.

JC: That's quite a horse to fall off, though.

CH: It happens.

JC: Do you approach the sport different now?

CH: It's kind of a tough situation for me right now. I was fairly good at what I did before the injury, and now, it's taking some time to get back. I'm nowhere near my personal record, and my competition skills mentally are not just rusty but I would say non-existent. Hopefully, it'll come. If not, everybody finds another path in life. Maybe I'll find mine through this incident.

JC: I don't think anyone would've expected you to come back exactly like you were before.

CH: You can't. I'm just happy to be alive and back jumping doing what I love.

JC: Considering everything that's happened, how do you measure success now?

CH: I used to measure everything on my achievements. I have all these All-Americans. I've never won a Big 12 championship, and I always wanted to do that. But now after all this has happened ... it's kind of made me decide if I go to a track meet and I feel like I've vaulted to the best of my ability, not looking at the heights but just feel good about the way I jumped and the way I competed, it's a success. Hopefully, if I just stick with that mentality, things will turn around for the better.

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