Rocket Men (and Women)

A year from today, we’ll all be glued to our televisions and tablets watching the Olympic Games in Paris. I will be glued, at least.  The Summer Games get me all fired up, especially the track and field events. Especially especially the field events. I mean, c’mon, you can watch running all year long, but how often do you get to see a javelin thrown, a discus tossed, or a shot “put”? (and how often do you even say “javelin” or “discus”?)  But one field event tops all others.  There’s simply nothing more gawky-entertaining than a human launched into space by a pole.

If you live in a two-story place with a fairly flat roof, it might be a little unnerving to learn Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand Duplantis can jump over your house.  While the rest of us have to walk around at ground level to get to your backyard, Armand will simply sprint up your front path, plant his pole in your rose bushes, launch himself past the bedroom windows and between the chimneys, and make a splash landing in your swimming pool.  Armand can do this because he can pole vault 20.4 feet, a world record he set last February.  It’s the fifth time this twenty-something has broken his own world record.

Duplantis

Pole vaulting is a truly bizarre sequence of movements constituting an Olympic event.  The vaulter balances a long fiberglass pole in one hand while sprinting down a rubber-surfaced runway. Just before running out of runway he or she raises the pole overhead with both hands, stabs the leading end into a boxed area on the ground, and pushes… hard.  The ensuing bend of the pole and a whole lot of momentum hoists the vaulter into the air, feet first.  With gymnastic flair, the vaulter then rotates his or her body around to be facing a high horizontal bar, just as gravity counters flight.  The final flop back to Earth (and onto a giant cushion) is typically punctuated with a mid-air fist pump if the bar is successfully cleared.

Armand doing what Armand does best

Imagine that exhilarating feeling when a pole vaulter is at peak height, pointing skyward, feet above body, pole released, practically cruising into the earth’s atmosphere.  As Elton John sings “… it’s gonna be a long, long time ’til touchdown brings me round again…”

Four Olympic field events involve jumping: 1) pole vault, 2) long jump, 3) high jump, and 4) triple jump (the ol’ “hop, skip, and jump”).  None of the last three hold my interest because they’re easy to do.  But not pole vaulting, not even close.  Launching my body even a few feet off the ground with a bendy pole?  Let’s just agree, I am no Rocket Man.

Pole vaulting brings to mind two questions (or three if you include Why in heaven’s name does anyone do this?).  First question: What happens if the pole breaks?  Seriously, sports equipment fails.  Golf clubs break in two with enough swings.  Tennis racket strings get loose.  At some point a pole vault pole will bend one too many times.  Yikes.  Second question: How does the pole translate horizontal energy into vertical energy?  It’s a physics problem akin to the catapult, but I’d have to go back to high school to solve it.  No thanks.

Leap of faith

The origin of pole vaulting is a bit of a letdown.  My too-many-movies imagination pictured a medieval war, with soldiers clearing castle walls on long pieces of bamboo.  Instead, pole vaulting is a rough translation of an old technique used to scale narrow natural obstacles, like watery marshes.  Get a running start, plant the pole, and sail from one side of the marsh to the other.  But those poles don’t bend, and nobody cares how high you go as long as you make it over.  So you see, even the origin of pole vaulting is gawky. 

The pole vaulting world record was eighteen feet in 1970.  Fifty years later it’s been pushed two feet higher.  Do the math; maybe we’ll be clearing one hundred feet by the year 2773.  But we’ll probably have flying cars by then as well, so any interest in humans launched by poles will be gone.  My advice: watch the Paris Games, especially the pole vault.  These rocket men and women won’t be around forever.

Some content sourced from the CNN article, “Olympic champion Armand Duplantis…”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

Unknown's avatar

Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

21 thoughts on “Rocket Men (and Women)”

  1. I have to be hones, I completely forgot about the Olympics. When we were young, I wouldn’t miss them. Then when they split them up for winter/summer Olympics, I just lost touch. Thanks for the reminder!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m excited about Paris as the host city, especially with its distinctive architecture as the backdrop. They’re saying the Parade of Nations will be on the Seine instead of in the stadium!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Duplantis got my attention with his latest world record but I was surprised I hadn’t heard of him before, considering he’s broken the world record several times already. He’s only 23 so I’m guessing he’ll up the record a few more times.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. First: Where is my flying car? I should have had it by now and second, my house is still taller than the current record, but if you math holds up — it should only be another 26 years before they can pole vault between my front and back yards. The only problem I see is that the house is a good 30 ft wide at its narrowest point so they’d need some horizontal distance too. So they’d need to combine pole vaulting and long jumping to fully clear the house.

    or they could just use the gate.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I hear you, George Jetson – we should’ve been flying around for years by now. And yes, I conveniently left the depth of the house out of my calculation. Maybe Duplantis goes down the chimney instead of past it? He should wear a Santa suit just in case.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Wouldn’t it be great if vaulters had to lug their equipment around the campus like tennis players and golfers? I’m trying to picture the carrying case for a pole vault pole. That’d be a very long shoulder strap 🙂

      Like

  5. I’ve enjoyed the Winter Olympics over the years, but the Summer ones kind of leave me blah. I don’t know if it’s the summer sports themselves or if it’s the time of year for me. Anyhow if nothing else Paris is somewhere intriguing.

    Like

    1. As always, you have an interesting take, Ally. It would be telling to know what percentage of sports fans prefer the Winter vs. the Summer Games. They both have their can’t-miss sports; I simply relate to more of the Summer events. As I mentioned in a previous comment, the Parade of Nations on the River Seine will be a classy way to kick things off. Only in Paris.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. As long as I’ve been old enough to know about the Summer Olympics, it was always easy to remember when they were scheduled, i.e. every four years, same as the U.S. election – then they cancelled the 2020 Olympics due to COVID. Good that they didn’t make the Olympics occur on an uneven year – no one would be able to remember when they would take place! To be honest, I never watch the Summer Olympics Dave and it’s been years since I watched the Winter Olympics which I always enjoyed, even though I’m not much of a Winter sports enthusiast myself – it has to be well over half a century since I plunked down on a toboggan, but I was always oohing and aahing over the luge events. Yes, a little trickier than a toboggan! I never missed the figure skating events, all the categories and I’d even watch all the qualifying figure skating events on ABC Sports leading up to the Olympics. I was familiar with all the skaters then, but couldn’t tell you a single figure skater, guy or gal, or pairs, now. I remember the “Battle of the Brians” and the infamous Nancy Kerrigan knee-thwacking that occurred right here in Detroit That pole vaulting looks daunting to me – lots of hours of practice and lots of stamina to get those moves down perfect.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Paris is only a few time zones removed from South Carolina, so I will watch the Summer Games next year. The time zone changes to the far east removed any suspense in recent Olympic Games, as the results were always announced online before you had a chance to watch. Thankfully, most of the coverage worth watching in Paris will be “live” in the U.S.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. That’s good about the time zones – it was bad for the Beijing games and the media should have not reported who medaled until people got to watch them, but I guess that would be impossible to do.

        Like

  9. Anyone who tries to vault himself over my house will have a rude awakening. Instead of a pool to splash down into, he will be met with either trees or a concrete slab. Ouch.

    I remember trying to do the pole vault in a high school gym class. It did not go well. I came away with an admiration for those who could do it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I wasn’t fast enough for track so I was thrown into field events instead. I wish I’d given pole vault a chance. Much more interesting than shot put, where I believe I landed simply to fill out the team.

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.