Soule man a pole man

[rainbowgirl28]

http://presspubs.com/articles/2007/08/1 ... 92169748.t

Soule man a pole man
Wyoming native a top finisher at Senior Olympics

Aug 15, 2007 - 08:47:56 CDT.



Patrick Johnson
Sports Editor

At 55 years old, Mike Soule considers himself an "old geezer."

However, the Wyoming native is doing something many of his younger counterparts couldn't or wouldn't.

Soule recently competed in the pole vault at the National Senior Games held in Louisville, Kentucky, in July of this year.

His vault of 9 feet, 1.75 inches earned him a seventh place finish among the nation's top vaulters in his age group.

Breakout
The National Senior Games are held every other year for athletes 50 years old and older. Competition age groups are based in five year increments. This year's competition saw men and women athletes from 50 to 97 years old competing in myriad events held at the 2007 games.

"They're trying to get us old farts off our butts and out and doing something," Soule said. "It was great."

Almost 13,000 athletes competed in 18 different sports over a 16-day period from June 22 to July 7 in Louisville, Kentucky. Most events were held at the Kentucky Exposition Center and Cardinal Stadium at the University of Louisville.

Events included archery, badminton, basketball, bowling, golf, cycling, racquetball, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, triathlon and volleyball among others.

"It was just like the Olympics," Soule said. "They had opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies. It was big doings."


The U.S. has two main governing bodies, the NSGA, which puts on the Senior Olympics, and the United States of America Track and Field (USATF), which is the national governing body for track and field, long-distance running and race walking in the U.S. The USATF also has a "Masters" division for older competitors and is also pretty active in Minnesota.

An athlete must qualify for the games by meeting the standard minimum performance for that event the year before the actual games themselves. Qualification must take place at the National Senior Games Association (NSGA) state games in order for an athlete to be able to compete at the national event. However, the ‘07 Minnesota State Games didn't offer the pole vault event, so Soule had to do what is called an open event qualification. The height he made that year in the USATF match qualified him for the Senior Games.

Soule began vaulting as a 7-year-old after seeing a high school vaulter do the event. His first "setup" were two peach crates with a bamboo fishing pole across them and his first pole was a piece of conduit pipe out of his dad's garage. He continued the sport at Hudson High School where he qualified for the Wisconsin state high school meet in 1969 as a junior.

Before 2004, you could say Soule's pole vaulting experience had been limited.

"I graduated in 1970 and did a little bit of jumping when I was about 27, because I was working with the high school kids and did some jumping there," Soule said. "But, I hyperextended my knee when I was 28 trying to show a kid how to do it. The only thing that was missing was, ‘Here, hold my beer and watch this.' That was surgery No. 1. A month or two from today I will have undergone my third surgery and all three of them have been pole vault related."

After watching the 2004 Olympics and the performance of U.S. vaulters Tim Mack and Toby Stevenson, who won the gold and silver medals, respectively, Soule thought it might be fun to give the sport another try. However, he was a little afraid to ask his wife Kay about it.

"All she said was to make sure the health insurance is paid up," Soule said.

Since then, Soule completed a pole vault pit and runway in his back yard, adorned with lights, several poles hanging on the garage wall and spent countless hours working out and putting up with aches and pains.

"Like other old people I have to deal with a slightly fractured back and some osteoarthritis to go along with it," Soule said. "But, I'm not going down easy."

Soule, who works at Denny Hecker's Stillwater Ford as a service writer, said the biggest physical problem is that atrophy sets in so fast.


"If you're going to be in shape to try to run fast and hang on to a pole it's tough," he said. "The muscles, especially, go away so fast the older you get."

Most enjoyable for Soule is the many friends he has made from all over the country who also share in his passion for this event. He wouldn't mind a couple area practice partners for his backyard pit, which is featured on the website www.bubbapv.com under "awesome backyard pits."

"I'd like to find some other old geezer who'll come up to my house and jump with me," Soule said. "It's awfully lonely out there in the backyard."

The next games will be held in 2009 in San Francisco, California.

Soule plans on being there.

"85-year-old William Bell set 12 world records this past year at the USATF Masters indoor championships in Boston with a final record jump of around 8 feet," he said. "That's only a foot less than what I'm jumping. Hopefully I'll still be around and be able to break that record when I'm 85."

[Bubba PV]

Yahooooooooooooooooo!! Great article about a great guy!! DEFINITELY one of my favorite people in this sport. Bubba

[master]

yes sir . . . . He's the SoooouuuuleMan!

- master

[Vaulting prof]

Mike,
You did us old "Vaultin' Geezers" proud with that fine article.
Gave some of the rest of the world a little insight into all that
it takes to keep going with this challenging sport pole vaulting as the decades slip by.

I avoided the surgery but am on a 2-3 month recovery from some
torn abdominal muscles. I should be on course to be vaulting by
December--- hopefully.

Howard

[Bubba PV]

Great to hear Howard. That means we'll see you in Boston!! Bubba

[souleman]

Thanks guys. As most of you know by now I had my surgery on my foot done yesterday (8/23). The doc was very positive about how it went. Believe it or not, there's a real good chance that I'll be able to go to Boston. So Howard? It looks like that is going to be yours and my "shoot for" date. Later..........Mike