Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault
| Men's pole vault at the Games of the XX Olympiad
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| Venue | Olympic Stadium | |||||||||
| Dates | September 1 & 2 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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Wolfgang Nordwig East Germany
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Bob Seagren United States
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Jan Johnson United States
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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-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, since he did not use or train on the pole. 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.
All jumpers reaching 5.10 m (16 ft 9 in) 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.
Key: OR = Olympic record; o = clear ; p = pass; x = fail; NM = no mark; T = tied; DNS = did not start
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