University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Mady Fagan
May 03, 2017 | Track & Field
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Georgia high jumper Mady Fagan is comfortable with distances. The junior from Los Gatos, Calif., is more than 2,500 miles from home and thriving in Athens, and while winning the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships she cleared a personal-best 6-foot-4 inches, which tied the school record.
A 5-foot-9 1/2 jumper cleared 6-4 — numbers like that will never stop being mind-boggling. Fagan seems kind of amazed and amused by it, too. She will be back in action on Saturday when Georgia hosts the inaugural Torrin Lawrence Memorial at Spec Towns Track.
Fagan's hometown of Los Gatos is a suburb of San Jose, located about 20 miles away from Stanford University in Palo Alto. It's also not far from the beaches of Santa Cruz. It's a beautiful and interesting part of the country, for sure.
During a quick chat Tuesday, Fagan talked about home, painting, if she can fly and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: Are there days when you kind of feel like you can fly?
Fagan: Yeah, I think when I do everything right it doesn't feel like you're trying that hard. When you get your technique right on the curve and then putting your foot down right and all that goes right, once you're in the air that's easy and that's like the best feeling ever.
Unfortunately it doesn't happen every time, but just increasing the frequency of when those moments happen is how I've gotten better. It's definitely the best feeling.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do? Or what's something creative you wish you could do?
Fagan: I paint and I used to be able to do it a lot more. I was considering being an art major, but it's so time-consuming. They were like, we'll let you take one drawing class to see if you can handle it and it was a lot to handle — and that was the introductory to art class.
I loved the material and I loved the teacher, but they were like, 'You need to log studio hours,' and I was like, 'When do I do that?' and they tell me it's in the afternoon. I do have something going on pretty much every afternoon, ever.
So I have had to find ways of filling in that creative outlet, when I can. Unfortunately is hasn't been as often as I want to. I miss painting; I love watercolor.
Frierson: What can you tell me about your hometown of Los Gatos, other than it means The Cats and it's near San Jose and Stanford?
Fagan: My mom actually works at Stanford; it's kind of a crazy commute because the Bay Area has gotten so congested. I kind of live in between San Jose in the valley and Santa Cruz over the mountains. Santa Cruz is the beach town and that was my favorite place to go.
It's only about 20 minutes from my house because I live in the mountains. I don't really have neighbors, I have to drive on this crazy, twisty, turvy one-way road to get to my house — and I love it. I love it and I miss that a lot, being surrounded by nature and not having neighbors. College students can be really loud (laughs).
I would go over to the beach all the time, especially if I was in a great mood. That was a cool outlet and I love the ocean. I can surf, but not very well. Los Gatos is a little bit of a mix of a small town and it has the Silicon Valley technology aspect to it, too.
Frierson: Since Netflix is based in Los Gatos, give me one or two things on Netflix that everyone should be watching?
Fagan: I watch a lot of comedy specials on Netflix, I don't know why they've been doing a lot more recently, and I think Louis C.K. is really funny. They just put me in a good mood.
A lot of Netflix originals, their series, are really good. I binge-watched "Dear White People" because I feel like it's important to stay involved and up to date on civil rights issues. That's something that I care about. That series was really honest about some important stuff.
Frierson: With what little free time you have, I would imagine that you have to be pretty smart and calculated with how you spend it. How do you pick and choose what you do?
Fagan: I try to listen to myself and what I really need at that point. Sometimes watching an intense Netflix episode isn't really what I need. I've gotten into reading a little bit more than I used to; I used to think I wasn't a very good reader or very into it, because most people told me to read things like Narnia and these fantasy books or teenage love dramas, and what I didn't really realize is what I like is more of the non-fiction stuff, biographies — there's so much information that's just right there.
It doesn't have to be presented in a boring textbook. It can be through someone's life.
Sometimes I need to just go outside; I used to go outside so much more, in California, and finding little parks and trails here is something I try to do a little bit.
Frierson: The Fosbury flop, introduced in the late 1960s, has been the preferred technique for about 50 years now. In the days of analytics and computer modeling and all that type of stuff, do you think folks might one day come up with something even better?
Fagan: I would be surprised if they could, but I'm sure people said that too when the Fosbury came along. I know one of my friends has gone into, I don't know if it was Nike doing the research, but they put all those electrodes on him and he high jumped, and they got all this data.
The human body is capable of amazing things, and these computer programs are capable of finding the best-case scenario, so maybe they're going to push us to some cool new discoveries. I can't imagine how it would work, but I think it's possible.
Frierson: Every time I write about the high jump it comes back to very talented people being able to jump well above their own height. Does it ever screw with your mind, as well?
Fagan: It does, because I've walked by people that are 6-4, my dad is about 6-3 and just looking at things that are around that height, it seems a little bit scarier. A lot of it is possible just because of what we put up in the weight room. It doesn't feel as horribly hard when you're stronger and faster.
When I think too hard about it, it's bad. I just need to go do what I need to do.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
Players Mentioned
