re: Mondo Duplantis is jumping in World Games

... bringing back the memories ...

1972 Summer Olympics and the Cata-Pole controversy


Bob Seagren was the dominate force in pole vault during this time. He had won the gold at the Mexico games earlier and expected to win the gold at Munich.
Bob Seagren and Wolfgang Nordwig were swapping leads and used a new vaulting pole -- the Cata-Pole.
But it was somewhere like just 2 or 3 months before the summer games President Adriaan Paulen banned the pole because they suspected carbon fibers in the pole gave them unfair advantage, so they were forced to use poles they had never used before. Later it was proven there were no carbon fibers.

Wolfgang Nordwig won the gold
Bob Seagren won the silver
After the vaulting competition Seagren took his pole and found Pres. Adriaan Paulen and handed him the pole.

Jan Johnson from the University of Alabama won bronze ---

The most CHILL person on the planet with the most amazing upper body strength ever seen. To him the pole didn't matter, you could have given Jon electrical conduit tubing and he would have tried to break that world record.

Glad to see his legacy lives on.