1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
Attendees	16 athletes from 7 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 18, 1920 (qualification) August 20, 1920 (final)
Medalist Frank Foss ( USA )   Henry Petersen ( DEN )   Edwin Myers ( USA )

The men's pole vault at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 18 and 20, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 16 athletes took part.

The US athlete Frank Foss , who won with a new world record, became Olympic champion . The silver medal went to the Dane Henry Petersen , the US jumper Edwin Myers won bronze .

Athletes from Germany, Austria and Switzerland did not take part.

Existing records

World record	Marc Wright ( USA )	4.02 m	Cambridge ( USA )	June 8, 1912
Olympic record	Harry Babcock ( USA )	3.95 m	Stockholm	July 11, 1912

Conducting the competition

All 16 jumpers had to jump a qualifying round on August 18th. The qualification height was 3.60 meters. The final took place on August 20th from 3:30 p.m.

Note: The qualified jumpers are highlighted in light blue.

qualification

Date: August 18, 1920

space	Surname	nation	height	annotation
1	Frank Foss	United States	3.60 m
	André Francquenelle	France
	Georg Högström	Sweden
	Eldon Jenne	United States
	René Joannes-Powell	Belgium
	Laurits Jørgensen	Denmark
	Edward Knourek	United States
	Paul Lagarde	France
	John Mattsson	Sweden
	Edwin Myers	United States
	Henry Petersen	Denmark
	Jussi Ruoho	Finland
	Ernfrid Rydberg	Sweden
14th	Étienne Gajan	France	3.50 m
ogV	Johann Martin	Estonia
	Lars Erik Tirén	Sweden

final

Frank Foss (USA): Olympic champion in pole vault

Date: August 18, 1920, from 3:30 p.m. When the 3.80 m jump was launched, only Frank Foss and 19-year-old Henry Petersen were in the competition, both of whom had jumped 3.70 m. Edwin Myers had disappointed a bit, because he had managed 3.99 m at the US championships together with Frank Foss. In the playoff for the bronze medal, which took place among four jumpers, Myers was able to secure at least third place. At the front, however, Foss was only concerned with the question of whether he would manage to set a world record in addition to the 3.80 m safe Olympic victory. So he had the bar set at 4.10 m - 8 centimeters above the existing world record - and managed the height straight away. When measuring, it was shown that it was actually 4.09 m. This amount was included in the statistics.

Frank Foss won the seventh US gold medal in the sixth Olympic competition - in 1908 two gold medals were awarded. Petersen won the first Danish medal in the pole vault.

space	Surname	nation	height	annotation
1	Frank Foss	United States	4.09 m	WR
2	Henry Petersen	Denmark	3.70 m
3	Edwin Myers	United States	3.60 m
4th	Edward Knourek	United States	3.60 m
5	Ernfrid Rydberg	Sweden	3.60 m
6th	Laurits Jørgensen	Denmark	3.60 m
7th	Eldon Jenne	United States	3.60 m
8th	Georg Högström	Sweden	3.50 m
9	John Mattsson	Sweden	3.50 m
10	André Francquenelle	France	3.40 m
11	Paul Lagarde	France	3.40 m
12	Jussi Ruoho	Finland	3.40 m
13	René Joannes-Powell	Belgium	3.30 m

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 144

Web links

• SportsReference Pole Vault , accessed September 3, 2017
• Official report French (PDF), accessed on September 3, 2017

Video

• A pole vaulting pioneer - Frank Foss - Antwerp 1920 Olympic Games , published June 21, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed September 3, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 555 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report, page 112 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)