Making the pole vault safer

Jeff Tully

BURBANK -- An athlete streaks down the runway, plants his pole, soars

through the air and over the crossbar, landing safely on the mat below.

Ideally, that is how a successful pole vault is accomplished. However,

not all attempts go as smoothly, and critical injuries can occur when

athletes make mistakes and equipment is not up to par.

Some recent injuries and deaths in the track and field event have some

wondering if the pole vault is a dangerous sport, and if modifications

are needed to further protect the participants.

But is the pole vault dangerous compared to other sports? Or is the

coincidence of a few recent tragic events casting an unfair spotlight on

a sport that has been around since the 1700s?

Three recent incidents have helped prompt the debate over the dangers

of the pole vault:

* Penn State University athlete Kevin Dare died in February during a

Big-10 Conference indoor meet in Minneapolis. Dare fell headfirst and was

killed after apparently not planting correctly and letting go of an

unfamiliar pole.

* Samoa Fili, a 17-year-old senior at Wichita Southwest High, died

earlier this month of head injuries two days after falling 12 feet in the

East Relays in Kansas. The incident was being filmed by his father.

Fili’s body hit the back side of landing mat, but the back of his head

hit the pavement on the edge of the mat.

* Jesus Quesada, 16, of Clewiston High in Florida, died in February

from a vaulting accident during practice.

Tragedies like these have prompted some to call for changes in the

sport. A bill in the New York Legislature will require mandatory helmet

use for high school and college vaulters.

*

Jan Johnson knows a little about the pole vault. Johnson began

vaulting in 1963 and set a world indoor record in 1970 at Kansas

University. He was also a bronze medalist in 1972 at the Munich Summer

Olympics.

Johnson said the recent injuries are giving the sport a bad rap. He

also said although the sport can cause injuries, there are simple ways in

which to make pole vaulting safer.

“Pole vaulting can be dangerous, there is no doubt about that,” said

Johnson who runs pole vault camps and a training center in Atascadero.

“But many of the accidents in the sport are not the fault of the sport

itself, but are caused by bad risk management by athletes and coaches.

Coaches and athletes have to be more skilled in risk management.”

Johnson, who is the National Pole Vault Safety Chairman, said there

are some easy measures that can be taken to cut down on injuries in the

sport.

One is to increase the size if the pole vault pits, the padding

athletes land on. Johnson said he would like to have a uniform pit width

of 19 feet 8 inches and a standard depth of 16-5.

Another measure would be to require more padding on the standards that

hold up the crossbar, along with areas around the pit that might pose a

danger to an errant vaulter.

But the biggest measure Johnson said he would like to see implemented

to make the event safer is the least expensive.

“I call it my $2 solution,” Johnson said.

The idea is to have a coaches’ box, a kind of target landing area in

the pit. A square would be painted on the top of mat to give the vaulter

something to shoot for when he or she is landing.

“It would be a box 10 feet wide and 8 feet deep,” he said. “A coach

could just buy a $2 can of spray paint and mark the area. The box would

be a guide to help both the athlete and the coach make safety and

performance adjustments.”

There is also a debate over requiring vaulters to wear helmets.

Although Johnson said helmets would likely cut down on some head

injuries, they wouldn’t provide proper protection to the back and sides

of the head and they might give an athlete a false sense of security.

Research on helmet effectiveness is still being done.

*

Another person who is concerned about pole vault safety is Ron Morris.

Morris, who runs the Burbank-based On Track Sports, is a Burroughs High

graduate who won a silver medal at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics.

Morris said the need for proper supervision and education by pole

vault coaches is vital to keeping the sport safe.

“We used to dig up the dirt in a field to have something to land in,”

said Morris, who was considered one of the top vaulters in the world in

1961 and 1962. “All we had to land on was wood chips and sand, and it

didn’t seem like we had that many serious injuries.

“But the need for good coaches, who know pole vaulting, is very

important. Schools need to have a coach who is specifically a pole vault

coach.”

Morris said the recent accidents in the sport should not spell a death

knoll for pole vaulting.

“I know some schools are talking about politely getting rid or

limiting the sport,” Morris said. “But I don’t think that’s necessary.

The sport has a lot to offer, and with improved equipment and education,

kids can take part in it safely.”

*

According to Johnson, some of the statistics about the sport and

catastrophic injuries that have occurred can be misleading. Johnson said

since 1970, there have been 44 catastrophic injuries suffered by an

estimated 2.9 million competitive pole vaulters. However, he said all but

two of those injuries can be attributed to noncompliance safety issues,

like pits not being the adequate size, and hard objects around the

landing area not being padded.

Johnson also points out that since new safety standards were

implemented in 1985, there have been only seven catastrophic injuries

suffered by pole vaulters.

The statistics were part of a three-year study on pole vaulting

injuries that Johnson helped compile.

Although more athletes take part in football in the U.S., the death

statistics for the sport are staggering. In the year 2000 alone, of the

1.9 million high school athletes who participated in football, 13 players

died.

“Four vaulters got killed in the U.S. [a few years ago] and in the

same year eight cheerleaders got killed and they hit the pole vault

hard,” Burroughs pole vault coach Mike McHorney said. “But they didn’t do

anything to cheerleaders. At least the vaulters come down on pads and not

gym floors.”

Despite the dangers that go along with pole vaulting, many athletes,

like Burroughs sophomore Mike Ortega, say they are aware of the dangers,

and they take safety precautions very seriously.

“[Athletes should] take the pole vault seriously, because it is a

dangerous sport,” Ortega said.

“A few weeks ago I snapped a pole in half and it’s a scary feeling.

But it doesn’t get in my way. I just have to be confident every time I

jump. I feel pretty safe. You just can’t think about getting hurt.”

For Johnson, all the debate over the dangers of pole vaulting only

serve to help bring about better safety requirements that will likely

strengthen the sport.

“My goal is to make the sport as safe as we can,” Johnson said. “Pole

vaulting is a highly educational, rewarding activity that has earned a

place in high school and college sports programs. We just need to do all

we can to ensure the safety of the athletes.”