Pole vault

Pole vault is a traditional track and field event. It consists of competitors running and leaping with the assistance of a handheld pole to clear the greatest height possible. Heights are marked by a horizontal bar that athletes attempt to launch themselves over. The bar can be adjusted, and individuals are allowed to make attempts at increasing settings until they have failed to clear it a certain amount of times (typically three). Ideally, athletes competing in the pole vault possess a great deal of speed, strength, precision, and flexibility. The evolution of technology and pole vaulting equipment—particularly the increasing flexibility of poles—gave modern athletes significant advantages over their predecessors. The men's world record is 20 feet 2.5 inches (6.16 meters), set by Renaud Lavillenie in 2014. The women's world record is 16 feet 7 inches (5.06 meters), set by Yelena Isinbayeva in 2008.

Brief History

Pole vaulting was originally a method of navigation, and its history extends as far back as ancient Greece. It was particularly common in watery regions, where people would make use of long poles to bypass obstacles. Pole vaulting competitions arose from this method of travel, but the earliest known ones were based on the distance individuals could clear, not height. In the late 1700s, German gymnasts were known to use poles to assist with leaps. The pole vaulting competitive event as it is recognized today first emerged in the 1800s, and it spread across Europe. In 1896, the first Olympic Games were held. Pole vaulting was among the events, greatly expanding its global exposure.

Early poles were often made of bamboo or other rigid materials. A late nineteenth-century athlete named Tom Ray employed a technique in which he climbed up the pole to gain significant height. Climbing in this manner was subsequently banned from the event. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, pole manufacturers began using more flexible materials such as fiberglass. These poles were both lighter and stronger than their predecessors, allowing athletes to build up a high running speed while burdened with less weight. Most importantly, the poles could bend while still supporting athletes' weight. This helped transfer the energy of their approach and launch much more easily than with rigid poles, and helped athletes to reach new heights. The world record had been 14 feet 9 inches (4.57 meters) in 1940, but a height of 16 feet 4 inches (5 meters) was first reached in 1963, and that record was surpassed later that year. By the early twenty-first century, more than twenty athletes had cleared 19 feet 8 inches (6 meters), and three women had cleared 16 feet 4 inches (5 meters).

2000 was a year that saw significant changes to pole vaulting. The 2000 Olympic Games were the first in which women's pole vaulting was an event. A change to the rules regarding world records and their locations also took place that year. Previously, there were two distinct categories for outdoor and indoor world records, but after the ruling, vaults taking place in both outdoor and indoor venues would be directly compared to each other.

Overview

Pole vaulting is one of the most complex track-and-field events, requiring strong sprinting, flexibility, core strength, and precise timing. It also requires significantly more equipment than other events, including poles, a crossbar, vertical uprights (also known as standards) that hold the crossbar, and foam mats on which athletes land. Because of these factors, pole vaulting is rarely seen on track-and-field teams below high school level, and even many high school track-and-field teams omit it. Therefore, the pool of athletes who pole vault at an elite level is smaller than that of other track-and-field events.

Pole vaulting technique consists of several phases. Initially, the athletes run at the crossbar. They attempt to build up speed while retaining a posture that will allow them to shift into the next phase. Next, athletes plant the pole in its designated box as they launch off the ground, attempting to convert as much of their energy as possible into vertical motion. Then they swing themselves, bringing their legs upward and eventually turn themselves upside down. They spin as they launch over the crossbar, turning to face it as they pass over it. Athletes can make contact with the bar, but if it is knocked free of its position, the attempt is considered a miss. To help prevent that, the final phase of a vault involves the athlete pushing off the pole, sending it falling in the opposite direction.

In a competition, athletes are typically given three attempts to clear a height. Once they manage to do so, they move on to a greater height. If they accumulate three misses at the same mark, they are eliminated. If they clear the height, then they are allowed a fresh set of misses at the next height. Athletes have the option to skip the current height and move directly to the next one, but their misses are not reset in that case. If multiple athletes clear the competition's final height, then the one who had the fewest misses at that height is the winner. If they had the same amount, then the one with the fewest total misses of the competition is the winner. If they are still tied, and the meet requires a tiebreaker, then the athletes are each given a single attempt at increasing heights until one clears it and the other misses. This is called a jump-off, and its jumps count toward the competitors' records.

In the 1990s, David Volz employed a technique in which he reached out and kept the crossbar steady as he jumped. Using this method, he was able to earn a place on the 1992 US Olympic team. The act of touching the bar to keep it in place or knock it back into place became known as Volzing. Although it was quite difficult to successfully perform in its own right—requiring expert timing and a precise touch—international sporting committees ruled that it fell outside of what the event was testing, and the technique was eventually banned.

Bibliography

Cooper, Craig. "Pole Vault 2012 Complete Rules Comparison." USA Track and Field National Officials Committee Training Subcommittee, 2012, www.usatf.org/groups/officials/files/resources/field-events/Pole-Vault-Rules-Comparison-Full-Mar2012.pdf. Accessed 28 May 2017.

"Evolution of the Pole Vault." Vaulter, 12 June 2013, vaultermagazine.com/evolution-of-the-pole-vault/. Accessed 28 May 2017.

"Overview." National Pole Vault Summit, www.polevaultsummit.com/. Accessed 27 May 2017.

"Pole Vault." International Association of Athletics Federations, www.iaaf.org/disciplines/jumps/pole-vault. Accessed 28 May 2017.

"Pole Vault Men." Olympic Games, www.olympic.org/athletics/pole-vault-men. Accessed 28 May 2017.

Schade, F., et al. "Comparison of the Men's and the Women's Pole Vault at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games." Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 22, no. 9, 2004, pp. 835–42. PubMed, doi:10.1080/02640410410001675315. Accessed 28 May 2017.

"Soaring to New Heights: The Evolution of Pole Vaulting and Pole Materials." Illumin, illumin.usc.edu/143/soaring-to-new-heights-the-evolution-of-pole-vaulting-and-pole-materials/. Accessed 26 May 2017.

Woods, David. "Pole Vaulting Is Family Affair for this Bloomington Clan." Indianapolis Star, 15 June 2015, www.indystar.com/story/sports/2015/06/15/pole-vaulting-family-affair-bloomington-clan/71254246/. Accessed 28 May 2017.