HAMMOND, La. (AP) — Beijing went badly for Erica Bartolina.
Now the pole vaulter, who makes her home in Louisiana, has an injured leg and is less than a year from her 30s.
Retirement is not at option, however. Redemption at the London Games in 2012 sounds a lot better to Bartolina, who'd prefer to be remembered for more than becoming the first Olympian to compete with only one eye.
"She's not going to retire until she physically can't compete anymore," said her husband and coach, Mike, who also is an assistant track and field coach at Southeastern Louisiana University. "She's a Brett Favre type."
Bartolina lost an eye as a baby in a car accident, limiting her depth perception, an obstacle she already has overcome to become an elite pole vaulter.
Had her leg been healthy this year, Bartolina would have planned her year around international competition. But a tendon has been bothering her for months, so she's decided to stay home to recover.
Still, what could be seen as a setback has provided an opportunity to do something else Bartolina enjoys.
"I've actually been coaching a lot of high school kids," she said. "It's been really great, because I wasn't able to pole vault and I had this energy and passion that I usually put into my training and I wasn't able to train. So I had to put it into something, so I put it into high school kids."
Bartolina, who grew up in Corvallis, Ore., and attended Texas A&M, was a longshot to advance past the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. Ranked 13th heading into the event, she earned a trip to China by finishing third.
"At the time, it was just so stressful that I didn't have the time to be like, 'Isn't this great? This is so fun,"' Bartolina said. "I had the goal of making the Olympic team for years and I had the goal of what I was going to do at the Olympics for like, a few weeks."
It was a difficult few weeks.
She was unable to enter the major European invitational meets leading up to the Olympics because the United States took her passport in order to obtain a quick visa for China.
"Erica didn't compete for 6 1/2 weeks," said Mike Bartolina, who also is her coach. "We started our season all over after the trials. You can try, but realistically that's going to be hard to get a good performance after that."
During the last week of practice before the Olympics, she hit her chin on the bar, which caused a minor concussion.
While her personal best had been 14 feet, 11 inches, she was unable to do better than 14-1.25 in Beijing and failed to advance beyond qualifying.
"That was pretty devastating for me," she said. "I still feel that periodically."
She doesn't have too much time to dwell on it now.
In addition to working out, coaching and caring for her husband as he recovers from back surgery, she's working toward the launch of Bartolina Athletics, which will be the couple's pole-vaulting academy.
If all goes as planned, it will be a regular training center for local athletes and a periodic destination for athletes from outside the area.
"If Erica had not gotten injured, we probably would have put (construction) off for a year or two," Mike Bartolina said. "Once we knew she wouldn't be able to compete, we were able to go ahead with it now."
The time off from competition wasn't what Erica Bartolina had envisioned, but she figures she's making the best of some down time before the pursuit of Olympic dreams resumes in full.
"The year after the Olympic year for a lot of Olympic athletes tends to be a little bit of a down year just because the Olympics are so stressful emotionally and physically that you kind of need a little more than your normal postseason rest to recover from it," Bartolina said. "I wasn't planning on having a rebuilding year, but it kind of worked out so that I am."
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