LEWISTON — Stacy Dragila is to the pole vault what Joan Benoit Samuelson is to the marathon.

Both were pioneering figures in sports that were considered beyond the reach of women’s physical abilities. Each ignored the naysayers, parlaying passion and persistence into inaugural Olympic gold.

So when Dragila made a brief stop in Samuelson’s home state Wednesday morning, she couldn’t help but see the parallels and reflect upon the similarly exhausting and rewarding journeys.

“They didn’t think women could do it,” Dragila said. “It was like the marathon. They didn’t think women could run that far because it would mess up their reproductive systems. Just stupid stuff. Other people said we didn’t have the upper body strength.”

Dragila defied the dissenters with the 1997 World Indoor Championship and 1999 World Championship before winning 2000 Olympic gold in Sydney.

Now 43, she was here to address employees of Liberty Mutual in a forum that was part motivational speech, part fundraising and part thank-you. As an official partner of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, Liberty Mutual insures every medal won by U.S. athletes at the 2014 Sochi and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

“We’re gearing up for the next Olympics. I love doing this. I think it’s fun to come out and thank our sponsors and help athletes make their dreams come true,” Dragila said. “It’s fun to shake hands and meet people who allowed me to train as hard as I wanted to, to be able to win a medal.”

Dragila was an unsuspecting recruit to pole vault.

She was training as a heptathlete at her alma mater, Idaho State University, in 1995. Coach Dave Nielsen approached the group, whose diverse skills push them to compete in seven events — hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, javelin, 200 and 800 meters — over two days.

“I never thought I would become an Olympian. I was kind of appeasing my coach. He was doing research on the internet for a paper he was writing, and he found out the Germans and Chinese were doing women’s pole vault. He thought we were the most well-rounded athletes, so who better to try the pole vault than the heptathletes?” Dragila said. “It looked like pickup sticks. We were trying to grab it and hitting each other, and I had no idea what I was doing.”

Nielsen scheduled the first exhibition event for a day when other teams would be arriving for a meet. Everyone’s sight of women competing in an event that had been considered off-limits fulfilled his goal of attracting attention and interest.

Those first vaults took place with the bar set between five and six feet, Dragila said. Five years later, she was a world record holder at nearly triple that height.

Today’s vaulters have pushed the standard above 16 feet, six inches.

“(Nielsen) was kind of a visionary in it. I was one of those people in the right place at the right time,” Dragila said. “I think I was frustrated enough that I wanted to keep going and figure it out. I had opportunities to go and compete in some bigger meets and experience that energy and think, ‘You know, this could be fun.’ Things just started clicking and it caught on like wildfire, and pretty soon I’m at the Olympic Games and how did that happen?”

Dragila said her coach presented the philosophy that pole vaulters were no different than gymnasts after they sprinted to the end of the runway.

“But from there, it wasn’t just I grabbed a 14-foot pole and ran down there. It was tons of progressions,” she said. “Unfortunately I think at the high school level coaches do say, ‘Grab high and try to make that bar,’ and kids get scared or they have a bad experience. And when they’re done, they’re done, instead of having that time to progress properly and give them confidence. Then you’ll see that success.”

Retired in 2009, Dragila now is the mother of two daughters, ages 4 and 2.

She exercises that slow-but-sure instructional philosophy at her Vault Camp in Boise, Idaho.

“I went to school to be an educator, and I didn’t really go into traditional education, but I’m now coaching privately and do camps and clinics,” Dragila said. “This is a way for me to give back. I just love what I do, so for me to have a desk job didn’t equate. I like to be out in the field.”

Dragila emphasizes the importance of cross-training in youth, both for physical and psychological benefits.

She said that scholarship opportunities for female track and field athletes are plentiful, due in large part to Title IX. But she added that coaches are seeking competitors who can score in multiple events, in order to maximize their investment.

“I tell my kids, I love that you’re a pole vaulter, but I want you to do other things to make yourself more marketable to a college system,” Dragila said. “And I think you’ll have more fun. If you’re just stuck on one event and you have a bad day, that bad day is only going to be intensified. It’s really nice to be able to walk away and have success in other places. Then you come back and you figure things out, and you’re back rolling again.

“You want to make it fun. I had fun all through my career, and I told myself once I stop having fun, it’s time to quit, because the passion’s not there anymore. I see these kids push too hard, too fast, and they might be great for a short time but that window is gone. That innocence and that fun are gone.”

The financial support of companies such as Liberty Mutual and its people is crucial to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic program.

Due in part to the sheer number of athletes, the U.S. government does not pay the way of its athletes. Other countries do.

“Every sponsorship counts, whether it’s a little thing or a bigger donation,” Dragila said. “It’s that bridge of not being in college anymore, and how do I get a sponsorship and how do I get to that next level to be looked at? That gray area is the dark hole that some fall through. It’s difficult.”

Dragila sees the talent pool vaulting over those challenges in much the same way she did two decades ago.

“At my camps the women outnumber the guys right now,” she said. “This next crop of girls that are coming out of college headed into Rio, you’re going to see some great numbers.”

Eastern Europe has emerged as the power in the sport.

Even as she sees her numbers eclipsed, and her accomplishments hidden more deeply in the record book, Dragila devotes her life to helping young American vaulters achieve the thrill she realized before anyone else — hearing her nation’s anthem played while she stood atop the medal stand.

From pioneer to promoter, Dragila’s life is defined by an event once forbidden.

“Sometimes I forget it. Especially standing on the podium and getting my medal and thinking, man, I never thought it would be me, and then being there was crazy. It was a flashback of all these doubters and all these people who were positive and all these things came back,” Dragila said. “That’s one thing I guess they can’t take away. It will be in the record book that I was the first Olympic gold medalist. I feel very honored and very blessed.”