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ATHENS OLYMPICS: Germany's Ecker in latest Olympic pole vault saga


26 August 2004


ATHENS - Olympic pole vault competitions has seen plenty of excitement and drama over the years, with German Danny Ecker providing the latest episode in this saga.

With the height at 5.50m in Wednesday night's qualifying, Ecker realised only after failing his second attempt that the uprights were not positioned in the way he had asked for.

Ecker informed the jury, but his plea to repeat the jump was dismissed. Ecker was down and out after his third attempt was foul as well and a subsequent German protest was rejected.

After further intervention from the German camp the jury allowed Ecker one final jump after all, which he nailed in stunning fashion. Ecker went on to clear 5.70m to advance into Friday's final.

"I was like in trance. I had already mentally completed the competition and my career," Ecker revealed.

Ecker's mother, the long-jump and 4x100m gold medallist from Munich 1972, Heide Rosendahl-Ecker, said she was on an emotional roller-coaster ride in the stands.

"We had no idea what was going on. Every five minutes the coach had to inform us about the latest situation. I admired Danny how calm he remained in this uncertain situation," she said.

Ecker said that a little electronic board indicating the position of the uprights had "never been used before in the 140 competitions I have been in" and that pole vaulters normally just inform one jury member of where they want the uprights to stand.

Another little electronic board indicating time for the jump led to the famous downfall of Bubka 1992 in Barcelona where he failed to clear his opening height of 5.70m - a piece of cake given that his world record was 6.11m at the time.

Meet organisers at the time were seemingly lax towards Bubka about applying the two-minute rule in which a vault must be completed, but the rule was followed strictly at the Olympics which seemed to have unsettled the greatest vaulter of all times.

"To me it looked as if the clock was running faster than usual," said Bubka after his shocking failure.

Four years earlier the pole vaulters also made headlines in Seoul by objecting to the bars not being raised at the same interval in the two groups.

They refused to continue which left organisers with no other option than to advance 15 of the 21 vaulters into the final.

In 1980, Poland's Vladylav Kozakiewicz made an obscene gesture at a hostile Moscow crowd after getting the gold with a world record vault of 5.78m.

The 1972 competition in Munich saw the first non-U.S. winner in Olympic history in the form of East German Wolfgang Nordwig.

Nordwig profited from the fact that the ruling body IAAF permanently prohibited a new pole dubbed "cata-pole" on the eve of the qualifying round after an initial intervention of the East German team.

Bob Seagran, who along with Sweden's Kjell Isaksson had raised the world record several times ahead of the Olympics with the new pole, was furious after having to settle for silver and threw his pole into the lap of the IAAF official who was responsible for the "cata-pole" ban.

Controversy about equipment was in fact a long-standing affair in the sport.

Back in 1908 in London, the American athletes were prohibited to use the then new technique of planting the pole into a hole dug at the end of the runway.

But Edward Cooke nonetheless won gold for the U.S. although he had to return to using poles with a spike for his jumps.

Another legendary Olympic pole vault final took place 1964 in Tokyo - a marathon event which lasted almost nine hours and which American Frederick Morgan Hansen finally won ahead of Germans Wolfgang Reinhardt and Klaus Lehnertz.


DPA

What he didn't mention was that Kjell's poles were confiscated as well. They were the original blue Skypoles. I think Steve Smith may have been using them, too. And some of Seagren's pole they confiscated were the perfectly legal older model. I think Jan had some of his poles confiscated, too.

Why?

vaultin chris wrote:Why?

I believe there was rule back in the day that any new equipment had to be available for one year before it could be used in the Olympics. Those poles were less than a year old, thus they were confiscated.

That's what I remember hearing like 9th-hand anyway. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

If you need a first-hand account, I can give it to you, since I competed in the '72 Olympics.

I wouldn't use the word "confiscated" as that implies that they took our poles away from us as if they were contraband or "illegal". Not so. They simply didn't allow us to use them. Seeing "Cata-Pole" on the label was all they needed to know.

This was actually all political. Since the Olympics were in Germany, they wanted to give an edge to the Germans - especially Wolfgang Nordwig. Jumping for USA was Jan Johnson and Bob Seagren. Kjell Isaakson didn't make the team for Sweden, and Steve Smith and Dave Roberts didn't make the team for the US - so the ban on Cata-Poles had no effect on them. Jumping for Canada was myself and Bruce Simpson. We all had Cata-Poles, with some carbon mixed in the fibre wrap. No big deal. Former world-record holder Chris Papinicoula from Greece also had Cata-Poles. The Europeans all had access to Cata-Poles for over a year. In Nordwig's case, the Cata-Pole rep had been offering free poles to him for over a year. But he chose to stick to his old Browning poles, and then cry foul.

Having said that, he put on one helluva good show, breaking 5.50 for the first and only time in his career to upset Seagren for the Gold. Johnson 3rd at 5.35.

The USOC sure thinks Steve was on the team.

I'm pretty sure Kjell was there, because either Don Baird or Steve had a Kjell story from the Munich games. I can't remember what it was, though.

Kirk wrote:If you need a first-hand account, I can give it to you, since I competed in the '72 Olympics.

I wouldn't use the word "confiscated" as that implies that they took our poles away from us as if they were contraband or "illegal". Not so. They simply didn't allow us to use them. Seeing "Cata-Pole" on the label was all they needed to know.

This was actually all political. Since the Olympics were in Germany, they wanted to give an edge to the Germans - especially Wolfgang Nordwig. Jumping for USA was Jan Johnson and Bob Seagren. Kjell Isaakson didn't make the team for Sweden, and Steve Smith and Dave Roberts didn't make the team for the US - so the ban on Cata-Poles had no effect on them. Jumping for Canada was myself and Bruce Simpson. We all had Cata-Poles, with some carbon mixed in the fibre wrap. No big deal. Former world-record holder Chris Papinicoula from Greece also had Cata-Poles. The Europeans all had access to Cata-Poles for over a year. In Nordwig's case, the Cata-Pole rep had been offering free poles to him for over a year. But he chose to stick to his old Browning poles, and then cry foul.

Having said that, he put on one helluva good show, breaking 5.50 for the first and only time in his career to upset Seagren for the Gold. Johnson 3rd at 5.35.

Sorry no carbon in the poles? Carbon was used in poles at a later date

"S" glass was in the poles a material that had not been on the market very long.

Green Catapoles and Blue Sky poles were banned from usage due to the use of "S" glass construction?
Steve Smith was one of the three on the USA team and his sky poles were banned. he may have not made the qualifing round?
Kjell Issakson was from Sweden and I had remembered that kjell was jumping 18'2" in 1972 so why would they not select him?.
Kjell Was a shareholder in SkyPole and used Sky poles not Catapole he had used Catapole in his earlier years?

Men's Pole Vault Final. Olympic Games 1972

1. Wolfgang NORDWIG (GDR) 5.50m.
2. Robert SEAGREN (USA) 5.40m.
3. Jan JOHNSON (USA) 5.35m.
4. Reinhard KURETSKY (GER) 5.30m.
5. Bruce SIMPSON (CAN) 5.20m.
6. VOlker OHL (GER) 5.20m.
7. Hans LAGERQVIST (SWE) 5.20m.
8. Francois TRACANELLI (FRA) 5.10m.

the rest is muddy and lots of urban legend - I will have to get Jan's version

At least Bruce and I remember it the same way, and until recently did not hang out with the same people; so it isn't like we heard stories from the same sources.

Also, I believe there is a pretty detailed article on this site about what happened to Seagren.

The Swedish Olympic Committee thought the Kjell was on their 1972 team. He was also on the 1968 and 1976 teams. Maybe he didn't make finals in Munich and that may have been the reason Kirk doesn't remember him there.

Yeah, I've heard that Kjell and Steve were there from some of my master's friends who vaulted back in the day. I'm guessing they didn't make the finals though.

I'm sorry to raise more questions than answers, and I apologize for any memory losses I might have had over the past 32 years. After I posted, I got to wondering why the heck there were only 2 US vaulters instead of 3, as I didn't remember any change in the number allowed from any one country.

So if y'all recall that Steve Smith was there, you're probably right. The only thing I can think of was that he scratched due to an injury.

With Isaakson, I really don't think he even showed up. My recollection is that he was injured, and was not able to make the trip.

I know absolutely for sure that Smith and Isaakson weren't "in the hunt" for the medals, as proven by Decamouse's list of the top 8 placers.

As far as the carbon goes, I'll leave that to the expert from ESSX. I do have some more info about the '72 Pole Fiasco filed on my computer somewhere that might shed more light on the carbon issue. I'll see if I can find it, if anybody's interested in the details.

My email's on my profile page, if anyone would like to correspond privately.