How Tall is a Pole Vault?

No one would think that pole vaulting is an easy sport. In fact, it is one of the most technical sports in all of the games of the Olympics. Just looking at the height of the pole vault bar will be enough to convince anyone that this is a truly complicated sport. It doesn’t take long for anyone to deduce that a lot of technique is involved just to get over the ridiculously high horizontal bars.

Pole Vault Height

When people ask about the height of the bar in this sport, they might think that there is a set record that everyone in the world should break. Well, it is true that people set records for vaulting the highest but that is a different goal altogether. It should be noted that the height of the horizontal bar used in this game is raised each time the current pole vault height is cleared successfully.

Equipment

The pole used by the participants in this sport is made of any material. At times it is made from a combination of different materials. The important thing is that the surface of the pole should be smooth. This also means that the pole that an athlete uses can be of any diameter and any length. Players may also add a protective layer of tape at the ends of the pole for better grip.

Vaulters will have to face a runway that is 40 meters long at the very least. The official rules also state that each competitor can make marks on the runway to serve as their cues when they make their attempt to clear the pole vault height. However, every player is only allowed to use only two markers on the entire length of the runway.

The players are to plant their poles in a box right before the bar. This box is 60 centimeters wide in the front and only 15 centimeters in width at the back. The crossbar, the horizontal bar that players are supposed to clear in their jump, is around 4.5 meters in width.

Making the Vault

The rules state the players are not allowed to move their hands up the pole once their feet leaves the ground. The rules of the game also further state that vaulters are not allowed to steady the bar or crossbar as they execute their vault. In order to ensure that a vault is successful, the bar should still remain in place after the athlete has left the area where players are supposed to land.

The chief judge announces the pole vault height that players should clear. Players have the opportunity to pass if they want to. A player is eliminated when three vaults are missed. In case of a tie, the player with the fewest misses wins. In case that that doesn’t settle the tie, players will then have a jump off until one of them misses a vault.