Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

The men's pole vault field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 1 & 2. Controversy arose when defending champion Bob Seagren and Sweden's Kjell Isaksson new Cata-Pole was declared to be illegal, by the IAAF, on 25 July. The pole was banned based on the fact that the pole contained carbon fibers, after an East German lead protest revealed that it contained no carbon fibers the ban was lifted on 27 August. Three days later the IAAF reversed itself again reinstating the ban. The poles were then confiscated from the athletes. Seagren and Isaksson believed this gave other athletes, like the eventually gold medalist, Wolfgang Nordwig an unfair advantage, since he did not use or train on the pole. After Seagren’s last vault he was so incensed by the way IAAF officials handled the event, he took the pole he had been forced to vault with and handed it back to IAAF President Adrian Paulen.^[1]

Results

Top 12 and ties and all vaulters clearing 5.10 metres advanced to the finals. 5.10 metres is an automatic qualifier and are shown in blue, all other qualifiers are shown in green. All heights are listed in metres.

Qualifying

Final

Key: OR = Olympic record; o = clear ; p = pass; x = fail; NM = no mark; T = tied; DNS = did not start

References

1. ^ [1]

• Sports Reference
• Official report