Female Athlete of the Year: Junior Dora Gyorffy Ties NCAA High Jump Record, Gets Ready for Sydney Games

Junior Dora Gyorffy jumped to new heights this year in the high jump.

Jumping to the incredible height of 1.97 meters at Heptagonals this winter, Gyorffy tied the NCAA indoor high jump record. Two weeks after that, she captured the NCAA indoor high jump title.

Just a week ago, she took second in the NCAA outdoor meet with a jump of 1.87 meters .03 meters behind rival Erin Aldrich of Texas. Gyorffy earned All-America honors for her efforts.

But much awaits her in the outdoor season yet to come, as she competes in international competition for her native Hungary and represents it at the Olympics in Sydney in September.

A fierce competitor, Gyorffy doesn't like to stop jumping. When she tied the NCAA indoor record of 1.97 meters this winter, she only stopped at that height because her shoe had torn apart and wouldn't last through another jump attempt.

She said she is happy with her jumping this year and feels she has improved considerably.

"I am very excited about how I did this year," Gyorffy said. "I feel I reached a new level with my 1.97 jump. It was especially meaningful for me because, in the past couple of years, I have not been improving as much as I would have liked."

At Heps in the spring, Gyorffy won Outstanding Female Athlete of the Meet honors for her first-place finishes in the high jump (1.90 meters) and the triple jump (12.99 meters).

She has headed home to Hungary and will probably practice at the national training camp for July and August. She will compete in several international meets in Europe in order to prepare herself for the elite competition she will face in the Olympics. She and her team will go to Sydney in the middle of September, and Gyorffy will compete on Sept. 28 of that month. She hopes to make it to the finals on Oct. 1.

While Gyorffy is an incredibly focused athlete, she strives to remain well-rounded and to lead a balanced life. A government concentrator who will be writing a thesis next year, Gyorffy said she has decided to take the fall semester off so that she doesn't have to worry about time pressures concerning her work if she were to come to school late in the term.

"I don't want to start my thesis late or be worried about thesis research during the summer," Gyorffy said.

Gyorffy said she appreciates Harvard's community of diverse interests, where athletics is not the sole focus. Having planned on going to law school after high school in Hungary (one can go straight to professional school there), she decided in her senior year to apply to Harvard. But, as she did not know English at the time, she took a year off to study English in Denver and then applied to Harvard.

"I was very excited when I got in, and I did not feel it too difficult to adjust when I came." Gyorffy said. "It was something completely new for me, and I enjoyed the challenge. It was really fun from the beginning to be so independent and start a new life in many ways."

Gyorffy said Harvard has lived up to her high expectations. She said she likes the different interests of its students and feels that it helps her put high jumping into perspective with other important things.

"I really like it here," Gyorffy said. "I think it is a great environment to find a balance between academics and everything else….I enjoy the fact that athletics is not a central focus here. It takes away a lot of pressure from track and helps to keep things in perspective. Also, people look at me as a whole person and not just as an athlete, which is very important for me."

When Gyorffy returns to Harvard, she hopes to break the NCAA record she tied of 1.97 meters this winter; she eventually aims to jump 2.00 meters. After graduating, she plans to participate in the World Championships in Edmonton and in the professional circuit in Europe.

As for the upcoming Olympics, Gyorffy said her goal is to make the finals, and she feels she will need to jump close to her 1.97 NCAA-record height to do so. But she said she is also capable of jumping 2.00 meters eventually, a height she feels would earn her a medal. However, she is weary of making detailed predictions.

"In an Olympic final, anything can happen," Gyorffy said. "So I just want to do the best I am capable of on that day. If I leave the track knowing that I did what I could that day, I will be satisfied no matter what."