New rules designed to help safety may hurt vault's future

MACHESNEY PARK, Ill. -- David Ziemann reaches the peak of his vault, stalls in midair, then topples backward onto the coarse runway. It's a nasty spill, but Ziemann's had far worse.

"My junior year I had a really bad fall," said the senior pole vaulter from Harlem High School. "I was up in the air like I was today, only I let go and I grabbed back onto the pole, and it bent and shot me off the mat. Good thing there was a pad on the stand or I would have been pretty badly hurt.

"It's a crazy sport, I guess."

It's one that may be disappearing at the high school level.

Numerous track programs -- and at least two states -- dropped the event this year after national safety standards were changed to require school districts to buy new, larger landing mats. New mats cost $8,000; an expansion kit runs $3,500.

It was a steep price to pay for schools already facing budget shortfalls and cutbacks. Many decided it was too steep, although many Missouri schools continue to compete in the event sanctioned by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

Dan Lynch, the girls track coach at Paris High School, said his school eliminated the pole vault this year when the rules change went into effect. He doesn't see it making a comeback, either.

"We can't afford it and we couldn't justify spending that amount of money if we could," Lynch said. "To be honest, I just wish they'd outlaw the whole thing. Every year we hear the horror stories of a kid being killed, falling off the mat, hitting their head on the ground. It just isn't worth the risk."

Result of three deaths

The rule was passed last year after three vaulters, two in high school and one at Penn State, died in accidents in a span of two months. The deaths drew national attention, but they weren't isolated events. In the past two decades, an average of one vaulter has died every year, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.

The new mats have been lauded by coaches and vaulters, who say they feel safer with the larger landing pits. But it's had another effect, too: marginalizing what was already a niche sport.

With this year's track season just under way, no one knows how many programs have dropped the pole vault around the country. The Illinois High School Association also says it's too early to know how many in Illinois have dropped it.

A parents' group paid for the new equipment at Ziemann's school, near Rockford. But at least two other area schools were still scrambling midseason to find the money for new mats. Those schools are currently unable to host the event.

Maryland eliminated the pole vault from state and regional competition after the rule change. Utah canceled the pole vault for at least a year to determine whether enough schools are still interested, said Cynthia Doyle, assistant director of the National Federation of High School Associations.

Event dropped statewide

Alaska, Iowa and Washington, D.C., dropped the event years earlier because of cost and safety concerns, Doyle said.

Jill Geer, spokeswoman for USA Track & Field, said the larger mats were needed at the high school level, regardless of whether the change hurt the event.

"We hope it won't affect it too severely," she said. "The interest in pole vault is still great, and we would hope it's just a limited number of states that choose to do this, and that in the long term maybe they will decide to reconsider."

The three vaulters who died all fell outside the landing area, hitting their heads on a solid surface. The national high school federation decided to expand the landing pads behind the metal box where vaulters plant their poles to begin their jump to 19 feet, 8 inches wide and 16 feet, 5 inches long. Previously, pads were 16 feet wide and 12 feet long.

Ziemann, who said he picked up the vault because he wasn't good at anything else, has attracted interest from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and Western Illinois University.

Ziemann's fall on a windy afternoon during practice has left him with a badly scuffed wrist, a throbbing hip and a sore heel.

He says he's never considered walking away from the pole vault. His goal this year is to clear 15 feet, a mark that could qualify him for the junior national team. It's a reachable goal, he said.

"Yeah. If I could quit falling on my face," he said.