Galina Nikolskaya was not even aware the sport of track and field existed until her senior year at Solon High School.

Nikolskaya, now a sophomore at CWRU, lived in Moscow until three years ago and was chosen when she was three years old to be groomed as a world-class Russian gymnast.

"I was in the kindergarten and playing around climbing trees when this lady came looking for kids who were coordinated," Nikolskaya said. "She had already picked two girls and was looking for a third. She saw me climbing and said, 'You.'"

That's how Nikolskaya got involved in athletics, but it wasn't until after gymnastics season her senior year at Solon that she discovered track and field. Members of her high school track team mentioned to Galina how fun it was and eventually talked her into joining.

"I still didn't really know what they were talking about," Nikolskaya said. "I thought that, ultimately, it was just running in circles for a long time. I didn't even know there was the 55-meter or pole vault. I had no idea those events existed."

Her high school coach saw potential in Galina as a pole-vaulter becaue of the strength and speed she acquired as a gymnast. He also realized the event wasn't something she could pick up in two months, so he made her into a sprinter instead so she could compete right away.

"I ran in varsity relays, getting a chance to go to big meets and win them," Nikolskaya said. "We also won a conference championship. That was great, but I was still interested in the pole vault and continued to work a little with it."

It wasn't until she arrived at CWRU last year that Nikolskaya started working a lot at the pole vault—with the help of coach Jeff Tomaszewski. To say she worked hard may be an understatement, considering she broke both school records as a freshman and then again as a sophomore (indoor 10'0", outdoor 9'0").

"With pole vault it was weird because I broke the school record my first year, something I was totally not going for," Nikolskaya said. "I was just trying to clear the next height, and then all of sudden coach came up to me and said, 'Do you know what you just did?'"

Nikolskaya also can run. This indoor season, she broke school records in the 55-meter (7.48), the 200-meter (26.95) and as a member of the 4x400 relay team (4:06.16). "She's very good in the 55," said CWRU head track and field Coach Kathy Lanese, "especially considering she is only on the track one day a week. If we could get her on the track two or three days as a dedicated sprinter, she'd be going to nationals sooner rather than later."

Whether Galina makes it to the NCAA Championships this year or during the next two, whether she does it in the 55-meter or the pole vault or whether she makes it at all doesn't matter to her. She has come a long way already, literally, from her perch in that tree in Russia.

Moscow to Northeast Ohio

Nikolskaya, a biology/pre-med major at CWRU, and her family came to Cleveland in 2000 when her father, Vladimir, received an invitation to work at the Cleveland Clinic in their biomedical engineering (BME) department. He now works at CWRU in their BME department, concentrating in cardiology and physiology. Her mother, Alena, works for the Cleveland Clinic. The family first lived in Solon where Galina spent her junior and senior years in high school but recently moved to Cleveland Heights.