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Don't know exactly the reason behind Ivanova's broken leg during Olympic qualifying, but never, ever land on your feet!

So it appears that she landed "safely" in the pit, but for whatever reason landed in a standing position.....................and broke her leg.

I will second this advice (as would ANY decent coach) DONT LAND ON YOUR FEET!!!! Even the best in the world have accidents and landing on you feet is a sure way to increase your chances of breaking/turning something.

PVJunkie wrote:So it appears that she landed "safely" in the pit, but for whatever reason landed in a standing position.....................and broke her leg.

I will second this advice (as would ANY decent coach) DONT LAND ON YOUR FEET!!!! Even the best in the world have accidents and landing on you feet is a sure way to increase your chances of breaking/turning something.

Landing on their feet ended at least two world class vaulters' careers...Maksim Tarasov and Dave Volz...even though Volz did make a brief comeback in '92.

i think that vaulter did not land where she is laying in the pit, a vaulter at my high school had a similar injury and he moved after he broke his foot in the box to a diffrent part of the mat. It looks like a trainer is already looking over her injury in the picture.

ESSX wrote:The ILD of the pit had to be 1.5 or more for one to break a leg landing standing up? Who was the manufacturer?
Did they use lattice of solid foam?
I bet it was solid foam.
Solid foam is not a safe pit!!!!
NOr is one that has a bevel to stop vaulting poles.
I think we need to find out if the company who made the system was IAAF certified?


Bruce

I would strongly disagree. I have seen ankles and leg breaks in almost all forms of pit construction. The key here is it is not a good idea to land on your feet in ANY pit. Your spikes "lock up" in the mesh and if you are twisting while falling...........well thats just not a good situation. Not to mention the fact that MOST do not properly secure the sections of their pit together to prevent the gap that occurs and that can be a major hazard. So........without speculating of IAAF certification, foam densities, ILD etc etc etc.............just practice safe landing techniques and avoid landing on your feet whenever possible.

PVJunkie wrote:

ESSX wrote:The ILD of the pit had to be 1.5 or more for one to break a leg landing standing up? Who was the manufacturer?
Did they use lattice of solid foam?
I bet it was solid foam.
Solid foam is not a safe pit!!!!
NOr is one that has a bevel to stop vaulting poles.
I think we need to find out if the company who made the system was IAAF certified?


Bruce

I would strongly disagree. I have seen ankles and leg breaks in almost all forms of pit construction. The key here is it is not a good idea to land on your feet in ANY pit. Your spikes "lock up" in the mesh and if you are twisting while falling...........well thats just not a good situation. Not to mention the fact that MOST do not properly secure the sections of their pit together to prevent the gap that occurs and that can be a major hazard. So........without speculating of IAAF certification, foam densities, ILD etc etc etc.............just practice safe landing techniques and avoid landing on your feet whenever possible.

A landing system in an Olympic Games must be safe to land in on your back or on your feet. I am sure that they have the proper sense to make sure all buckles and straps are secure?
I agree with you about the possibility of a mesh twisting the ankle. I agree you should not land on your feet in the pit but for technigue reasons more so than landing\.
But I and many others have missed the pit at 13'6" and landed on the ground without breaking a leg? ( I have search the net for more info and cannot find it! Does anyone have more details?)
The Olympic Games equipment manager has a responsibility to get the pit checked to insure that Athens 2004 has no more injuries of this type. (I did in 1996 as equipment logistic manager for 15 sports for PORTaPIT)

USA has coach Criss Sommerlot the throws coach who is familiar with the PV and can inspect the system to insure no one else gets hurt.

Prudence (clear-insightness) will not be wasted in this effort to make sure there is not a problem. Deceleration of foam structure can not be made by just throwing foam into a vinyl bag. You must have those experienced in the event PV and HJ to insure that the product is safe.

ohhh.... that makes me cringe looking at which way he fooot is pointed in relation to the knee....I'm about to pass out

Mondo was the Official Equipment Supplier - IAAF had plenty of there Technical People there plus lots of high powered Vault Coaches so I think it is a bit premature to be throwing out stuff without the least bit of knowledge about the pit, or how she landed. An ILD of 1.5 by itself does not make you break a leg (otherwise how would you rate ground!) - to bet it was solid foam with no knowledge is a risky bet. As a manufacturer I would not appreciate someone just throwing stuff out like that - especially another manufacturer, regardless of how many pits than may or may not make.

It is an unfortunate injury

Here's a good pic of the pit. It looks perfectly fine. I would hate to land on that camera directly behind the box though!

I look at that same pic and it looks to me like the pole is bent up against the pit. You can't tell from that pic if the pole stood straight up or rolled over. I'm sure it's more of a problem for some vaulters than other, depending on their takeoff angle, grip, and how high or low their pole was bending.

Maybe it was an issue, maybe not. Just seemed like a lot of vaulters weren't getting in very well, and that shouldn't be an issue on a fast runway with no bad winds to contend with.

Look at the reflection of the pole on the pit. There's a bit of distance between it and the pole. Unless there's some bizarre lighting effect, that would mean the pole isn't touching the pit. As you get closer to a surface, your reflection gets closer to you and if you are touching the surface, your reflection will be touching you (usually). Not to say the pole didn't hit the pit before or after, but at the time of the pic, i don't think it is.