The increase in height that pole vaulters clear since the modern Olympics began is astonishing. In 1896, the bronze medalist, Evangelos Damaskos of Greece, vaulted 9' 4-1/4". The fifth-place finisher cleared a mere 8' 2-1/2" -- just inches more than today's top men high jumpers clear. Improvements both in technique and equipment -- not to mention the generally superior conditioning that the modern athlete enjoys over his predecessors' -- are responsible.
Americans once had a stranglehold on the Olympic pole vault competition, winning the gold medal every year from the Games' inception until 1972 (not including the 1906 Intercalated Games). Oddly, an American has not been back to the Olympic winner's circle since. Bob Seagren, the 1968 winner, took the silver in 1972 after his Cata-Poles were banned, because of either their content or their lack of previous availability; in the ensuing controversy, it was hard to tell quite what he had done wrong.
Today, Soviet Sergei Bubka, the 1988 Olympic champion, owns the event, having become the first man to vault 20' (in Malmo, Sweden, on August 5, 1991). It was his fourth world record -- of 1991.
But the greatest pole vaulter of his time, maybe of any time, was an American who never got a medal, and never even competed in an Olympics, due to circumstances -- namely, World War II. Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam pole-vaulted 15 feet or more 43 times between 1940 and 1944. No one else cleared the height until 1951. When he retired, Warmerdam's best vault was nine inches higher than anyone else's. His world record of 15' 7-3/4", set on May 23, 1942, remained until April 27, 1957, when Bob Gutowski broke it.
Here are the Links: not many people know what pole vault is exactly, but these pages can briefly show you the ins and outs of pole vaulting.
http://www.13monkeys.com/vring/
The Pole Vault WebRing. For a rainy day, check out pole vaulters
from all over the place and their own pages. Feel free to add
your site to the ring!
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/l/www/hyplan/kinzler/pubs/pvfigs/index.html
Many different charts, diagrams, and pictures are shown on this
site... Great way to see what the correct form of professional
vaulters is.
http://www.advantageathletics.com/
looking for pole vault workouts? A fine site with many weight
lifting methods and workouts made to boost your vault higher than
ever before.
