Formerly | United Canvas and Sling, Inc |
---|---|
Private | |
Industry | Sporting goods |
Founded | 1967Hackensack, New Jersey, United States | in
Founder | Lou Schwartz |
Headquarters | Minden, Nevada, U.S. [1] |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products |
|
Website | ucsspirit |
UCS Spirit is a company based in Minden, Nevada that specializes in track and field equipment. [2] They are best known for their fiberglass pole vaulting poles. UCS Spirit also sells other track equipment like throwing implements, hurdles, and landing mats. [3] The production and sale of track equipment began in 1987.
The company began as Universal Canvas and Sling, Inc. in the late 1960s by Lou Schwartz and his family. Canvas products like awnings and boat covers were made by them in their factory in Hackensack, New Jersey. Son Jeff Schwartz saw an opportunity to create pole vault and high jump landing pits. The company contacted Coach Bill Bowerman of the University of Oregon track and field team. It was agreed upon the pole vault mat would be showcased at the upcoming AAU National Championships. After the meet, Coach Bowerman asked to purchase the mat.
Years later, Universal Canvas and Sling, Inc. was growing as a mat production company when Jeff's brother Larry Schwartz joined the company. The brothers teamed up with Steve Chappell to create a line of pole vaulting poles made of fiberglass material. Chappell and his business partner Lane Maestretti had already been working on pole vaulting poles in Carson City, Nevada. [4] Fiberglass poles were in its infancy at the time. Together the group made the UCS Spirit vaulting pole in 1987. [5] A year later, Sergei Bubka set the first of 12 world records on a UCS pole. [6]
In February 2017, UCS Spirit moved locations from Carson City, Nevada to a 6,000 square foot facility in Minden, Nevada. [7]
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long flexible pole as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus which gymnasts perform on, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus. Vaulting is also the action of performing a vault. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is VT.
Robert Eugene Richards is an American retired athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the only male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.
Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka was twice named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News, and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.
Stacy Renée Dragila is an American former pole vaulter.
Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam was an American pole vaulter who held the world record between 1940 and 1957. He missed the Olympics due to World War II, and retired from senior competitions in 1944, though he continued to vault into his sixties. He was inducted into the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame in 1974.
John H. Uelses is a retired American pole vaulter. He made history by becoming the first man to vault over 16 feet – on February 2, 1962, at the Millrose Games in New York's Madison Square Garden, before a sold-out crowd, Uelses soared over the bar at 16' 1/4", making headlines around the world.
Ronald Hugh Morris is a retired American track and field athlete who won the national title in pole vault in 1958, 1961 and 1962. He placed fourth at the 1959 Pan American Games and second at the 1960 Summer Olympics. After retiring from competitions, he worked as athletics coach.
Jennifer Lynn Suhr is an American pole vaulter. She has been an Olympic and World champion, has been ranked #1 in the World, has been the #1 American pole vaulter since 2006, and has won a total of 17 US National Championships. She holds the world indoor pole vault record at 5.03 m. She holds the American women's pole vault record indoors. In 2008, she won the U.S. Olympic trials, setting an American record of 4.92 m and won a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics. She won the gold medal at the London Olympics on August 6, 2012. Track & Field News named her American Female Athlete of the Year for 2008.
Jack Bryan Whitt is an American pole vaulter. His personal best jump indoors is 5.72 m, achieved in June 2012 in Tulsa, OK. His best outdoor jump of 5.70 m came in May 2013 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will represent the United States at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow.
Albert Richmond "Boo" Morcom was an American track and field athlete.
Brandon Richards is an American Track and Field athlete. He was the national high school record holder in the pole vault and a son of double Olympic Gold Medalist in the pole vault, Bob Richards. He is the third of four of Richards' sons who all excelled at the pole vault—Bob Jr. finished second in 1968 and Tom won the CIF California State Meet in the pole vault.
Jillian Schwartz is an American-born female former pole vaulter who competed internationally for Israel. She represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics and competed at five consecutive World Championships in Athletics from 2003 to 2011. Her best placing in international competition was fourth at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Sam Kendricks is an American pole vaulter. He is a three-time indoor and six-time outdoor national champion (2014–2019), the 2016 Olympics bronze medalist, and the 2017 World Champion. In 2019, Kendricks set the American pole vault record at 6.06 m, tying him with Steve Hooker for fourth all time. He later won the gold medal at the World Championships in Doha.
Armand "Mondo" Duplantis is an American-born Swedish pole vaulter and the current world record holder with a height of 6.18 metres. Duplantis won gold as a 15-year-old in the boys' pole vault at the 2015 World Youth Championships and holds a number of age group world bests. He won the gold medal at the 2018 European Championships with a height of 6.05 metres, and the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.
Sandi Morris is an American pole vault record holder. She won the silver medal in the pole vault event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also won silver at the pole vault event at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. In 2018 she won gold at the World Indoor Championships. Morris has a personal best vault of 4.95 m indoor, set on March 12, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. She matched this height at the 2018 World Indoor Champships when setting a new championship record. July 23, 2016, Morris cleared 4.93 m at American Track League in Houston at Rice University breaking Jennifer Suhr's American outdoor record in the pole vault. Morris cleared 5.00 m at 2016 IAAF Diamond League Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 9, 2016 to set the U.S. women's outdoor pole vault record.
Demi Payne is an American track and field athlete whose specialty is pole vaulting. She is the daughter of American pole vaulter Bill Payne. Payne competed collegiately for Stephen F. Austin State University. She competed in the pole vault event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China. Demi Payne won gold medal on March 1, 2015 2015 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships Pole Vault with a height of 4.55 m. She won a bronze medal June 28, 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Pole Vault with a height of 4.60 m
Allison Rebecca Stokke Fowler is an American track and field athlete and fitness model. She broke a number of American records for high school pole vaulting. Images of her at age seventeen were widely shared on the Internet, resulting in her becoming an internet phenomenon. Her unsought sex symbol status was covered nationally and internationally, and sparked informed debate on the sexualization of sportswomen and of young women in general via the Internet.
Logan Cunningham is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the pole vault. He holds a personal best of 5.71 m, set in 2016.
The Pole Vault Summit, alternatively called the National Pole Vault Summit, by the sponsor's named UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit or geographically the Reno Pole Vault Summit is an annual festival of pole vaulting. Since 2011, the event has been held in the Reno-Sparks Livestock Event Center located in Reno, Nevada. For the first twenty years of its existence, the event was held in a hotel ballroom, primarily at the Reno Hilton Hotel.