Trivia Quiz! Who was the 1st Olympic fiberglass vaulter?

[KirkB]

Who, and what year?

Who was the second, and what year?

And who was the third? What year?

Any old geezers that know this stuff without resorting to web searches or history books? No cheating!

Extra points awarded if you can say what they placed, or how high they jumped!

Kirk

[dj]

good morning

I believe Bob Mathias actually tried a "spun" fiber glass pole? made by Gill... don't know if that was in 1952 or even in the Olympics...just taking a shot here.. George Moore mentioned it in a conversation we had in 1981.. Call OnTrack in Burbank.., Ron Morris will probally have the answer..

dj

[2-15-46]

good morning

I believe Bob Mathias actually tried a "spun" fiber glass pole? made by Gill... don't know if that was in 1952 or even in the Olympics...just taking a shot here.. George Moore mentioned it in a conversation we had in 1981.. Call OnTrack in Burbank.., Ron Morris will probally have the answer..

dj

[bHad to have been the 1964 olympics][/b]

[2-15-46]

Could it have been Fred Hansen 16-8 3/4

[2-15-46]

two germans were 2 and 3

[KirkB]

Hint: You're in the wrong decade!

It's actually quite surprising how early fiberglass poles were first used in the Olympics.

It was only in 1964 that the Gold Medal was on a fiberglass pole, so that must be why you're guessing then.

But there were earlier usages - albeit not resulting in a Gold Medal.

Kirk

[PVstudent]

The answer is Georgios Roubanis 3rd Melbourne Olympics 1956 with height 4.50m (14 feet and 9inches. This is for pole vault Olympic finals.

The first olympic athlete to use a fiberglass pole was Bob Mathias in the 1952 Decathlon in Helsinki.

[2-15-46]

Interesting ..I knew they experimented back then but did know they were allowed in the Olympics, like in 72 when the "unfair advantage pole" was tagged illegal and Jan and Segren were bot allowed to use them...
woder if there any vids of Mathias jumoing on one ..

[KirkB]

Who, and what year?

Who was the second, and what year?

And who was the third? What year?

Any old geezers that know this stuff without resorting to web searches or history books? No cheating!

Extra points awarded if you can say what they placed, or how high they jumped!

Kirk

I will award the Gold Medal to dj for his correct - but somewhat hesitant - guess of Bob Mathias in the decathalon in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Dj also gets a bonus point for correctly guessing the Olympic year.

No points for guessing his place or height yet, but his place is an easy point-grab for someone!

The story of Bob Mathias is actually quite amazing. I'll post something about him on another Historical thread. I found some action pics, but nothing that specifically mentions him using a fiberglass pole.

I guess it would be asking too much for anyone to remember how high he vaulted in Helsinki.

Another point is up for grabs if anyone can find that trivia tidbit. Someone will have to dig deep. I couldn't find anything on a casual web search.

The Silve Medal goes to PVstudent, who correctly guessed the SECOND athlete to use fiberglass in the Olympics.

He also confirmed Mathias as the first - a little more confidently than dj!

The answer is Georgios Roubanis 3rd Melbourne Olympics 1956 with height 4.50m (14 feet and 9inches. This is for pole vault Olympic finals.

The first olympic athlete to use a fiberglass pole was Bob Mathias in the 1952 Decathlon in Helsinki.

PVstudent also gets 3 bonus points for correctly guessing the Olympic year, as well as Roubanis' place and clearance.

The Bronze Medal is still up for grabs.

Hint: Someone used a fiberglass pole in the Olympics between the time that Roubanis won the Bronze in 1956, and the time Fred Hansen won the Gold in 1964.

Year? Name? Place? Height?

Kirk

[PVstudent]

According to the New York Times, July 26th 1952 Bob Mathias standing 6ft 3 inches and weighing 204 pounds jumped 13feet 11 1/2inches on his second attempt at that height to lead the decathlon pole vault. Data given in the report by Allison Danzig. The event was a clean sweep of the Decathlon medals by the USA Bob Mathias 1st PV 4.00m, Milton Campbell 2nd PV 3.30m, and Flloyd Simmons 3rd 3.60m in PV.

Don Bragg 1st, 4.7m., Ron Morris 2nd, 4.60m, Eeles Landstrom 4.55m 3rd Rome Olympics. I guess perhaps Ron Morris but I have a sneaky suspicion that it might have been Igor Petrenko (Soviets Union) 4.50m 6th= with Matti Sutinen. Don Bragg is often referred to as the last of the "great" steel pole vaulters so I am fairly confident he didn't use a fibreglass pole in Rome.

I remain to be enlightened.

BTW thanks for the silver and bonus points.

[KirkB]

Hint: The THIRD athlete to use a fiberglass pole in Olympic competition qualified for the Final, but did not win a medal.

I think the year should be obvious by now.

PVstudent, I was very impressed that you dug up the info on Mathias' bar height - and even his attempt #! You'll get extra bonus points for that when I do the final tally. In the meantime, I would suggest that you dig deep again, before dj phones up Ron Morris and scoops the Bronze medal!

The answer is not Ron Morris. He used metal in his only Olympic appearance. His first recorded heights with fiberglass were in 1962.

Kirk

[dj]

hye

taked with ron... he didn't think anyone in the vault jumped on glass.. he named all of them and said steel.. just when i was going to ask about the decathlon our connection went bad...

i think Rafer Johnson (gold) would have had access to the same spun glass pole? He was from Bakerfield and UCLA... Plus he had watched Bob Mathias.....

final answer Rafer Johnson... gold..

dj