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As with any other money making entity, the Olympic Games
have various slogans, symbols, and mascots that, in addition to signifying the
dignity and sanctity of the Olympic spirit, are also meant to be licensed for
boatloads of cash!
Take
that stupid, trademark-infringing knitters!
The Olympic rings and flag are universally recognizable. The
mascots for each edition of the games receive at least some fanfare. Yet, do
you know the tripartite Olympic motto? It was new to me upon my disclosure.
"Citius, Altius,
Fortius." From Greek, it means
'Faster, Higher, Stronger.'
I'd say no other Olympic event embodies this motto better than the pole vault. Apart from looking silly, it's a game of technique,
equipment, and of course--science!
 ...via Seattle Times
Let's begin with a little history. Ancient Egyptians are the
first to document using long poles with a running and jumping technique to lay siege to enemy fortifications or reach
insurmountable heights. Farmers would use poles like this to cross irrigation
ditches and swamps. This methodology carried over to Ancient Greece, Ireland
and Gaul as well, and the Celts of the Tailteann games were among the first to
pole vault competitively. It seems as though pole vaulters originally competed
for distance, but modern incarnations have athletes compete for height.
 ...via Gattfly's Nest
While the basic idea remains the same today, everything else
has changed; but let's start with the equipment. Originally, pole vaults were
ash in composition, before evolving to bamboo poles and hollowed aluminum.
However, each of these types of poles did not have the energy return
coefficient of today's modern materials, and have been replaced by preloaded
fiberglass poles.
Fortunately, Discovery Channel Canada
featured vaulting poles on an episode of "How It's Made." The somewhat
complex process produces a pole in just an hour.
 ...via eHow
It's important where the athlete grasps the pole, as holding
onto the pole higher results in a higher center of gravity. In fact, taller
athletes have an advantage during pole vaulting, which is why women's pole
vaulting has not caught on as much as men's pole vaulting: it's just physically
impossible for women to achieve the same height.
Studies suggest that even with the most perfect of
techniques, men cannot clear much more than 20 feet, while women can clear 19
feet. This holds water based on the current pole vaulting world record for men
(20' 2 1/8" by Sergey Bubka) although the women's record falls short of this
calculation (16' 7 3/16" by Yelena Isinbayeva).
Follow this link to watch three female pole vaulters talk about their skill level and say, "and like," a billion freaking times.
 "Yelena...I know you can do better!" ...via Wikimedia
To begin, the athlete sprints down the runway with the pole
in hand. A vaulter runs more straight-up than a sprinter to counterbalance the
pole (frame 1, below). This sprint is essential to build quality kinetic energy and contributes
to nearly 60% of the vault's height. As the pole is planted, it compresses from
the athlete's kinetic energy and turns it into elastic potential energy (frame 2). The
vaulter at this point has raised the pole over his or her head, with the
dominant hand near the top of the pole and the submissive hand about 18" below.
The submissive leg provides the initial lift off, and as the pole extends it
transfers the potential energy back to the athlete in the form of gravitational
potential energy. At maximum height, nearly all of the energy is transferred
back to the vaulter. At this point, the athlete swings their legs over their
head (frame 3), providing momentum from which they can launch themselves off the pole.
The vaulter is typically upside down at this moment, pushing the pole away from
the cross bar to prevent a foul.
From here, we have a vaulter
upside-down about 15 feet or so in the air. He or she extends their legs over
the crossbar, while rotating the body lengthwise 180° (frame 4). They now must focus on
clearing all of their appendages over the bar, and the rotation of the body
over the bar is natural with good form (frame 5). Finally, the vaulter is in kinetic
freefall, where he or she should land face-up on a foam mat, and immediately be
grateful this isn't 75 years ago when the athlete fell right to the ground.
Ouch!
 ...via Wikimedia
"I love the pole vault because it is a professor's
sport. One must not only run and jump, but one must think. Which pole to use,
which height to jump, which strategy to use. I love it because the results are
immediate and the strongest is the winner. Everyone knows it. In everyday life
that is difficult to prove."
Those words from
Sergey Bubka ring true in consideration of the scientific nature of the contest.
It upholds the virtues of the Olympics better than most other sports, so it's a
shame that it regularly gets subjected to midnight TV airings between water
polo and wushu. It's just another example of Olympic organizers not giving the people
me exactly what I want. (Which, for the record,
is more Yelena Isinbayeva.)
 "Call me, Yelena!" ...via Professional Muscle
Resources
ABC News - The Physics of Pole Vaulting
American Track & Field - The History of the Pole Vault
Popular Science - How it Works: The Pole Vault
Wikipedia - Pole vault
How Stuff Works - How Pole Vaulting Works
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Re: CR4 Olympic Coverage: Pole Vaulting
