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 the new Cata-Pole, used by defending champion American Bob Seagren and Sweden's Kjell Isaksson, 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-led 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 eventual gold medalist, Wolfgang Nordwig, an unfair advantage. Seagren and Isaksson were given substitute poles which they had never used before to jump with. Isaksson, who had lost the world record to Seagren only 2 months earlier, didn't clear a height in the qualifying round and was eliminated. 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 Adriaan Paulen.
This was the first Olympics where the pole vault had not been won by an American. Prior to 1972, USA had won 16 straight. Since 1972 USA has only won the men's pole vault twice, equalling the record of Poland and components of the USSR. France has won three times since 1984.

Results

All jumpers reaching and the top 12 including ties qualified for the finals. This was the automatic qualifier shown in blue. All other qualifiers are shown in green. All heights are listed in metres.

Qualifying

Final

RankNameNationalityMark4.805.005.105.205.305.355.405.455.505.56Notes
Wolfgang Nordwig5.50ppopxooxooxxoxxxOR
Bob Seagren5.40pppopoxxoxxx---
Jan Johnson5.35pppxopxoxxx----
4Reinhard Kuretzky5.30oxoxxoxooxxx-----
5Bruce Simpson5.20poxxooxxx------
6Volker Ohl5.20ppxoxoxxx------
7Hans Lagerqvist5.20pxopxxoxxx------
8François Tracanelli5.10ppopxxx------
9Ingemar Jernberg5.10pxxoxoxxx-------
10Wojciech Buciarski5.00popxxx-------
11Khristos Papanikolaou5.00oopxxx-------
-Antti KalliomäkiNMpppxxx-------
-Hervé d’EncausseNMppxxx--------
-Tadeusz ŚlusarskiNMpxxx---------

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