Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

Men's pole vault at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 21 (qualification) July 22 (final)
Medalists
Bob Richards  United States Don Laz  United States Ragnar Lundberg  Sweden

Video on YouTube amateur film

These are the official results of the men's pole vault event at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The final was held on Tuesday July 22, 1952.

Summary

Bob Richards was the returning bronze medalist. His closest domestic competitor was Don Laz, who shared the US championship earlier in the year after 4 years of Richards dominance. In the final both remained clean to 4.40m, just ahead of Ragnar Lundberg and Petro Denysenko, who each had one miss earlier. Lundberg had passed at 4.10m, which became significant because neither could go any higher. While modern rules would make that a tie, in that era, the third tiebreaker was the number of attempts, which gave Lundberg the bronze medal. Both Richards and Laz cleared the next height, 4.50m on their second attempts, still tied. They remained tied to their final attempt at 4.60 m (15 ft 1 in) when Laz missed and Richards cleared it to take his first gold medal. Richards defended the championship four years later, jumping 1 cm higher and went on to Wheaties box fame. No other man has defended the pole vault title, though Yelena Isinbayeva defended the women's title in 2008.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Cornelius Warmerdam (USA)	4.77 m	Modesto, United States	23 May 1942
Olympic record	Earle Meadows (USA)	4.35 m	Berlin, Germany	5 August 1936

The following Olympic record was set during this competition.

Date	Event	Athlete	Time	OR	WR
22 July	Final	Bob Richards (USA)	4.55 m	OR

Results

Qualifying round

Qualification Criteria: Qualifying Performance 4.00 m advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nationality	Best height	Notes
1	A	Petro Denysenko	Soviet Union	4.00
1	A	Tamás Homonnay	Hungary	4.00
1	B	Erkki Kataja	Finland	4.00
1	B	Ragnar Lundberg	Sweden	4.00
1	B	Jukka Piironen	Finland	4.00
6	A	Zeno Dragomir	Romania	4.00
6	B	Don Laz	United States	4.00
6	B	Lennart Lind	Sweden	4.00
6	B	George Mattos	United States	4.00
6	B	Bob Richards	United States	4.00
11	A	Rigas Efstathiadis	Greece	4.00
11	B	Erling Kaas	Norway	4.00
13	B	Valto Olenius	Finland	4.00
14	B	Viktor Knyazev	Soviet Union	4.00
15	A	Volodymyr Brazhnyk	Soviet Union	4.00
16	A	Theodosios Balafas	Greece	4.00
16	A	Torfy Bryngeirsson	Iceland	4.00
18	B	Bunkichi Sawada	Japan	4.00
19	B	Milan Milakov	Yugoslavia	4.00
20	A	Walter Hofstetter	Switzerland	3.90
21	B	Ron Miller	Canada	3.90
22	A	Tim Anderson	Great Britain	3.80
22	A	Geoff Elliott	Great Britain	3.80
22	B	Zenon Ważny	Poland	3.80
25	A	Hélcio da Silva	Brazil	3.60
26	A	Gamal El-Din El-Sherbini	Egypt	3.60
	B	Georgios Roubanis	Greece	–	NM
	B	José Vicente	Puerto Rico	–	NM

Final

The final was held on August 19.

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	3.60	3.80	3.95	4.10	4.20	4.30	4.40	4.50	4.55	4.60	Result
	Bob Richards	United States	–	–	o	o	o	o	o	xo	xxo	xxx	4.55 OR
	Don Laz	United States	–	–	o	o	o	o	o	xo	xxx		4.50
	Ragnar Lundberg	Sweden	–	–	o	–	o	xo	o	xxx			4.40
4	Petro Denysenko	Soviet Union	–	–	o	o	xo	o	o	xxx			4.40
5	Valto Olenius	Finland	–	–	–	o	xo	xo	xxx				4.30
6	Bunkichi Sawada	Japan	–	o	xxo	o	o	xxx					4.20
7	Volodymyr Brazhnyk	Soviet Union	–	o	o	o	xo	xxx					4.20
8	Viktor Knyazev	Soviet Union	–	o	o	xo	xo	xxx					4.20
9	George Mattos	United States	–	–	o	xo	xxo	xxx					4.20
10	Erkki Kataja	Finland	–	–	o	o	xxx						4.10
11	Tamás Homonnay	Hungary	–	o	o	o	xxx						4.10
11	Lennart Lind	Sweden	–	o	O	o	xxx						4.10
13	Milan Milakov	Yugoslavia	–	o	xo	xo	xxx						4.10
14	Rigas Efstathiadis	Greece	–	o	o	xxx							3.95
14	Torfy Bryngeirsson	Iceland	–	o	o	xxx							3.95
16	Erling Kaas	Norway	–	o	xxx								3.80
17	Theodosios Balafas	Greece	o	o	xxx								3.80
18	Jukka Piironen	Finland	–	xo	xx								3.80
18	Zeno Dragomir	Romania	–	xo	xx								3.80

External links

• Official Olympic Report, la84.org.