Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

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Men's pole vault
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics.png
Olympic Athletics
Venue Japan National Stadium
Dates31 July 2021
(qualifying)
3 August 2021
(final)
Competitors29 from 18 nations
Winning height6.02 m
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Armand Duplantis Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Silver medal icon.svg Chris Nilsen Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Bronze medal icon.svg Thiago Braz Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil
  2016
2024  
Official Video Highlights TV-icon-2.svg
Official Video Highlights

The men's pole vault event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 31 July and 3 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. [1] 29 athletes from 18 nations competed. [2] Armand Duplantis of Sweden won gold, with Christopher Nilsen of the United States earning silver and Thiago Braz of Brazil taking bronze. It was Sweden's first victory in the event and first medal of any color in the men's pole vault since 1952. Braz, who had won in 2016, became the ninth man to earn multiple medals in the pole vault.

Summary

All of the 2016 podium returned to Tokyo; Thiago Braz da Silva, Renaud Lavillenie, and Sam Kendricks. Kendricks tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Tokyo and was not allowed to compete. But the old guard of the sport had been supplanted by a new phenom, Armand Duplantis, a 21 year old who had 18 years of vaulting experience, setting age group world records since the age of 7. In 2019 he won silver at the World Championships. In 2020, he took Lavillenie's world record. [3]

It took a clean round of 5.65 metres to get into the final, 11 of the 14 finalists cleared 5.75 in qualifying. Seven jumpers made 5.80 metres, with Lavillenie passing and failing at the next heights. At 5.87 metres, Duplantis passed, only Braz and Chris Nilsen cleared. Duplantis cleared 5.92 metres on only his third jump of the competition. Nilsen cleared on his second attempt. Braz couldn't, leaving him for the bronze. Duplantis cleared 5.97 metres and Nilsen answered with a personal best. At 6.02 metres, Duplantis cleared again, still perfect. Nilsen took three attempts to join the 6 metres club but couldn't. Now as the winner, Duplantis could choose his next height to attempt. Instead of attempting to beat Braz' Olympic Record of 6.03 metres, he asked for 6.19 m (20 ft 3+12 in), a new world record. His first attempt saw his hips and body up around 6.50m, but he came back brushing the bar on his way down. He aborted his second attempt and the third was close. [4]

Silver medalist Nielsen was full of praise for the winner, Armand Duplantis. He compared the competition against Duplantis that evening as being a regular footballer "trying to emulate Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo" and that his superiority over the world's best pole vaulters was "impressive and ridiculous". [5]

Background

This was the 29th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics.

2016 bronze medalist and 2017 and 2019 world champion Sam Kendricks of the United States qualified but had to withdraw due to a positive COVID-19 test. [6]

For the second consecutive Games, no nations made their men's pole vault debut. The United States made its 28th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's pole vault event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 5.80 metres. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 32 is reached. [7] [8]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both outdoor and indoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. [7] [9]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the pole vault. [7]

Entry number: 32. Qualified by Entry Standard: 22. By World Rankings Position, to complete the required entry number: 10. By Universality Places: 0

Qualification standardNo. of athletesNOCNominated athletes
Entry standard – 5.80
3Flag of France.svg  France Ethan Cormont
Renaud Lavillenie
Valentin Lavillenie
3Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Torben Blech
Bo Kanda Lita Baehre
Oleg Zernikel
3Flag of the United States.svg  United States Sam Kendricks
KC Lightfoot
Chris Nilsen
2Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil Thiago Braz
Augusto Dutra
2Flag of Poland.svg  Poland Piotr Lisek
Paweł Wojciechowski
1Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Kurtis Marschall
1Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium Ben Broeders
1Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain Harry Coppell
1Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands Menno Vloon
1Flag of Norway.svg  Norway Sondre Guttormsen
1Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines EJ Obiena
1Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC [Note RUS] Timur Morgunov
1Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea Jin Min-sub
1Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Armand Duplantis
1Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey Ersu Şaşma
World ranking2Flag of Greece.svg  Greece Konstantinos Filippidis
Emmanouil Karalis
2Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Seito Yamamoto
Masaki Ejima
1Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina Germán Chiaraviglio
1Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Huang Bokai
1Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Claudio Stecchi
1Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands Rutger Koppelaar
1Flag of Poland.svg  Poland Robert Sobera
1Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Melker Svärd Jacobsson
Total31

Competition format

The 2020 competition continued to use the two-round format introduced in 1912. There were two distinct rounds of vaulting with results cleared between rounds. Vaulters were eliminated if they had three consecutive failures, whether at a single height or between multiple heights if they attempt to advance before clearing a height.

The qualifying round had the bar set at various heights up to a qualifying standard of 5.80 metres. All jumpers clearing that standard advanced to the final. A minimum of 12 jumpers advanced; if fewer than 12 achieve the qualifying standard, the top 12 (including ties after use of the countback rules) advanced. It has been common in recent Games for few enough vaulters to achieve the last height below the qualifying standard that none even attempt the qualifying standard.

The final had jumps starting typically just below the qualifying standard and increasing gradually. The final continued until all jumpers were eliminated. [10]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.

World recordFlag of Sweden.svg  Armand Duplantis  (SWE)6.18 Glasgow, United Kingdom 15 February 2020
Olympic recordFlag of Brazil.svg  Thiago Braz da Silva  (BRA)6.03 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 15 August 2016
AreaHeight (m)AthleteNation
Africa ( records )6.03 Okkert Brits Flag of South Africa.svg South Africa
Asia ( records )5.92 Igor Potapovich Flag of Kazakhstan.svg Kazakhstan
Europe ( records )6.18 WR Armand Duplantis Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden
North, Central America
and Caribbean
( records )
6.06 Sam Kendricks Flag of the United States.svg United States
Oceania ( records )6.06 Steven Hooker Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia
South America ( records )6.03 OR Thiago Braz Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's pole vault took place over two separate days. [1]

DateTimeRound
Saturday, 31 July 20219:00Qualifying
Tuesday, 3 August 202119:00Final

Results

Qualifying

Qualification Rules: Qualifying performance 5.80 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

RankGroupAthleteNation5.305.505.655.75HeightNotes
1B Bo Kanda Lita Baehre Flag of Germany.svg  Germany ooo5.75 q
B Christopher Nilsen Flag of the United States.svg  United States ooo5.75 q
3B Armand Duplantis Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden xooo5.75 q
A KC Lightfoot Flag of the United States.svg  United States oxooo5.75 q
5A Kurtis Marschall Flag of Australia.svg  Australia oxxoo5.75 q
6A Renaud Lavillenie Flag of France.svg  France xxoxoo5.75 q
7B Menno Vloon Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands oooxo5.75 q
8B Thiago Braz Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil xooxo5.75 q
A Emmanouil Karalis Flag of Greece.svg  Greece ooxoxo5.75 q, SB
10A Ernest John Obiena Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines ooxxo5.75 q
11B Piotr Lisek Flag of Poland.svg  Poland oxxoxxo5.75 q
12B Harry Coppell Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain oooxxx5.65 q
B Ersu Şaşma Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey ooxxx5.65 q
A Oleg Zernikel Flag of Germany.svg  Germany ooxxx5.65 q
15A Robert Sobera Flag of Poland.svg  Poland x–oxxr5.65
16A Augusto Dutra de Oliveira Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil ooxoxxx5.65
17A Valentin Lavillenie Flag of France.svg  France ooxxoxxx5.65
18B Ben Broeders Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium xoxxoxxx5.65
19B Matt Ludwig Flag of the United States.svg  United States ooxxx5.50
A Jin Min-sub Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea ooxxx5.50
21B Huang Bokai Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China xooxxx5.50=SB
22B Konstantinos Filippidis Flag of Greece.svg  Greece oxoxxx5.50
B Ethan Cormont Flag of France.svg  France oxoxxx5.50
24A Sondre Guttormsen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway xxox–5.50
25A Torben Blech Flag of Germany.svg  Germany oxxx5.30
A Masaki Ejima Flag of Japan.svg  Japan oxxx5.30
B Seito Yamamoto Flag of Japan.svg  Japan oxxx5.30
28A Pawel Wojciechowski Flag of Poland.svg  Poland xoxxx5.30
A Claudio Stecchi Flag of Italy.svg  Italy xxx NM
B Germán Chiaraviglio Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina DNS

Final

RankAthleteNation5.555.705.805.875.925.976.026.19HeightNotes
Gold medal icon.svg Armand Duplantis Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden oooooxxx6.02
Silver medal icon.svg Christopher Nilsen Flag of the United States.svg  United States ooxooxooxxx5.97 PB
Bronze medal icon.svg Thiago Braz Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil oxoxooxxx5.87 SB
4 Emmanouil Karalis Flag of Greece.svg  Greece oooxxx5.80=PB
KC Lightfoot Flag of the United States.svg  United States oooxxx5.80
6 Piotr Lisek Flag of Poland.svg  Poland ox–oxxx5.80
7 Harry Coppell Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain oxoxoxxx5.80 SB
8 Renaud Lavillenie Flag of France.svg  France ox–xx5.70
9 Oleg Zernikel Flag of Germany.svg  Germany xooxxx5.70
10 Ersu Sasma Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey oxoxxx5.70
11 Bo Kanda Lita Baehre Flag of Germany.svg  Germany oxxoxxx5.70
Ernest John Obiena Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines oxxoxxx5.70
13 Menno Vloon Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands oxxx5.55
Kurtis Marschall Flag of Australia.svg  Australia xxx NM

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Nilsen</span> American athlete (born 1998)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's pole vault</span> Pole vault championship

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