In the midst of one of the strongest seasons of her career, Team USA women’s high jumper Amy Acuff enters qualifying on Friday looking to find the elusive first World Championships medal of her career.

A two-time Olympian, Acuff won her fourth national outdoor crown in June at Palo Alto, Calif., with a winning clearance of 1.95 meters/6 feet, 4.75 inches. The runner-up in March at the USA Indoor Championships, Acuff won at Glasgow earlier this summer with a clearance of 1.98m/6-6, and she set the American leading mark for the season with her clearance of 2.01m/6-7 in Zurich, which equals the fifth best mark in the world this year.

Acuff’s performances this season have put her in a position to win an international championships medal for the first time since winning the gold medal at the 1997 World University Games.

A solid performer on the track, Acuff has a variety of interests away from the sport.

A model in her spare time, Acuff has appeared in Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Maxim, Vogue and other magazines. A biology major while at UCLA, Acuff, who enjoys surfing, was the organizer of the 2000 Omni Lite Millennium Calendar of Champions, featuring photos of Acuff and 11 other U.S. female track and field stars. Half of the proceeds were split between Acuff and 11 other U.S. female track and field stars, who participated in the project while the other half was donated to the Florence Griffith-Joyner Foundation.

Acuff is currently enrolled in a four-year course at the Academy of Oriental Medicine in Austin, Texas, learning to become an acupuncturist. Her interest in the discipline developed when she was treated with acupuncture following an automobile accident three weeks prior to the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials. Ironically, the accident occurred on Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. Acuff qualified for the 2000 Olympic Team by winning a jump-off against U.S. stalwart Tisha Waller.

Acuff arrived in Paris right after becoming engaged to U.S. men’s pole vaulter Tye Harvey. In addition to the new engagement ring on her finger, Acuff hopes to return to the U.S. with a new necklace around her neck – the kind with a large medal attached to it.