Interesting, how much our memories of this occasion vary, after 32 years.
Thanks to Ed Grant for chipping in. I think I've switched sides on the
authority of recollection as a function of age at the time. It just may be
that those who have responded as teen-agers at the time have a few more
brain cells still alive than I do.
Firstly, I think I may have been wrong about the pole that was banned. In a
parallel thread on the VaultCanada mailing list, Doug Ross commented:
"I was 15 at the time and at that point I was still buying into the whole
"Olympic Ideal". So I had an interest in the whole scam. My memory is that
the pole in question was the Green Catapole 550+."
Okay, only another teen-ager, so I could ignore that; but Gérard Dumas, who
was in attendance, describes the pole in question as "perches vertes," which
would be the Catapole 550+. I can hardly ignore Dumas' authority, since his
qualifications as vaulter include at least one competitive result every year
since 1948 and his qualifications as vault statistician are unmatched. I'll
copy his full post below, but for now I'll try to understand my mistake.
At the 1976 USA Olympic Trials, I had conversations with the designers of
both Catapole and Pacer. Both were vehemently disgusted with Paulen. In
retrospect, that probably would have been Catapole objecting to the ad hoc
bench tests that were finally advanced as reason for banning the 550+, when
it was clear that the argument of unavailability of the pole for all
competitors wouldn't wash. For Pacer, the disgust would have centered on
Paulen's similarly ad hoc ruling, shortly before the Trials, that the usual
practice of western vaulters of placing a towel in the box to absorb some of
the impact of planting was illegal, "because it changed the dimensions of
the box." Pacer thought the absorption of impact by the towel permitted a
better transfer of energy in the plant and decreased the chances of pole
breakage.
Okay, mea culpa.
I'd like to copy one other VaultCanada post in addition to Gérard's. This
one is from a competitor in the Munich vault, Kirk Bryde of Canada, whose
memory may help to clarify the sequence of events, although apparently he
remembers the pole in question as the Pacer Carbon, as I did. Incidentally,
the thing that was different about the 550+ was that it was manufactured
with a slight pre-bend that permitted most vaulters a smoother take-off.
Apparently this was not an advantage for Nordwig.
Bryde wrote,
"I have a very keen interest in this thread, since I
competed in the qualifying round, and in several meets
leading up to the 1972 Olympics. I did not qualify for
the Olympic Final, but I was certainly in on the buzz,
as I watched from the stands.
"This story probably gets stretched by people every time
it's retold. I can offer a first-hand perspective, but
I caution you that I too may not recollect the entire
sequence of events. It was 32 years ago!
"Certainly, there was an Olympic rule requiring that all
poles must be available to all athletes world-wide, or
else they would be declared an unfair advantage. I
cannot recall whether the carbon poles made by Pacer
were available 12 months before Munich. I used them,
and so did most other North American vaulters.
Wolfgang Nordwig preferred the older "pure fibreglass"
poles that he'd been using for many years.
"In my experience, there was really no appreciable
difference between the carbon poles and the pure
fibreglass poles. The availability of carbon poles was
in fact "world-wide" in that any Olympic calibre
vaulter - including Nordwig - could get free poles from
Pacer for the asking.
"My recollection was that Adrian Paulen was East German,
but I may be wrong about that. I'm trying to recall
the exact year that East and West Germany competed as
separate Olympic teams. I'm thinking that they
competed separately in Munich, but I might be off by a
few years.
"However, what I clearly recall without a doubt is that
Paulen was very PRO-Germany. There was no indication
in the buzz amongst us vaulters that he was
ANTI-American. Isaakson actually didn't compete in
Munich. He was either injured or eliminated in
Sweden's trials. (The other big 'surprise' that year
was that both Dave Roberts and Steve Smith lost in the
US trials - they all cleared 5.50 at the US Trials.
Tough break! The pundits had predicted that it would
be Seagren and Roberts to represent the USA.)
"At any rate, IMHO, what happened was that the German
officials took it upon themselves to alter the rules so
that Nordwig had an advantage over the Americans
(Seagren and Johnson). With Isaakson, Roberts, and
Smith not competing, there were no other 18-footers in
the competition, with the exception of Chris
Papinicolaou who hadn't repeated his WR 18-0.25 since
his one-and-only 1970 clearance.
"Had Isaakson been competing, or had Papinicolaou still
been in his prime, I think the same thing would have
happened - devise a way to interrupt the non-German
competitors to give Germany a Gold. So on this basis,
I can't say that Paulen was ANTI-American. He was just
PRO-German - but you can see how the story can get
stretched.
"I also recall that the carbon poles were banned
once-and-for-all several days before the competition,
but as Roger says - all vaulters had previous
forewarning that they were "illegal". I think most
vaulters just brought all the poles they had - with and
without carbon - as the forewarning was by no means
final. However, all the North American vaulters had
been using only carbon poles the entire outdoor season
- so their old poles were typically a lighter weight
rating. There was lots of borrowing going on - to get
the right weight "pure fibreglass" pole for the
weather. The FINAL declaration gave vaulters enough
time to retape their old or borrowed poles to Olympic
standards, but no time to practice on them. It wasn't
a dramatic day-of-the-meet thing that happened.
"The biggest issue with the sudden ruling just days
before the competition was not that the playing field
got levelled. On the contrary, everyone had their
favourite poles, and were getting psyched to use them.
You all know how tough it is to switch to borrowed
poles without getting any practice on them beforehand.
"In this situation, my hat goes off to Seagren (silver),
Johnson (bronze), and Simpson (5th) - who all had to
switch poles. They proved that pole selection and
familiarity is only one aspect of a true champion.
There has been no mention in this thread of swirling
winds - sometimes slight headwinds within the stadium.
The wind had just as much to do with the "low heights"
in the 1972 Olympics as the poles did, IMHO. (About 4"
under the WR.) Each of these vaulters were
competitive, fast runners who had plenty of experience
vaulting well under adverse conditions. Nordwig must
also be included as being competitive and fast.
"Seagren had always been a media attention-getter (he
came by that honestly, since he'd been interviewed so
many times after breaking the world record several
times between 17-0 and 18-4 or so). So after his 3rd
miss, he did in fact "ceremoniously" present his pole
to Paulen, in front of all the cameras and the crowd.
That certainly made the TV coverage in the US and
Canada. If my recollection is correct, I think that
Paulen refused to accept the pole and then got booed!
"Talent-wise, I considered Nordwig as the 3rd-best
vaulter there, until he cleared 5.50 for the
first-and-only time. Props for doing that with no
tailwind and in the biggest meet of the year. Compared
to the other vaulters, Nordwig had a unique technique
in that he dropped the lead knee rather dramatically
after the C - which I considered inferior - but that's
another story.
"That's my take on it, to the best of my recollection at
the moment."
Kirk Bryde
And here's Gérard's read on the matter:
"Paulen was from Holland and yes, he was a bit "pro German". I was there
too and in my humble opinion I think that neither Johnson nor Seagren
would have beaten Nordwig that day had they been permitted ( which
should have been the case) to use their perches vertes. Nordwig was
unbeatable that day and although he only did 5.50m once ( like doing
6.05m now ) he did it under enormous pressure with, at the time that he
jumped, a slight head wind. I am not pro German, see my personal
history, but Nordwig won because he was the best on that day. Johnson
did extremely well since his 5.35m, for the bronze medal,represents his
third best ever performance. 5.50m in 1972, 5.36i in 1970 are only
superior to that Munich jump. So I cannot see that he would have done
better there with a pole of different color. All the rest is literature
usually handled by "Runway coaches, Good weather coaches or Daffodils
coaches."
Gérard.
"Yes, Seagren should have done something with his pole when Paulen asked
him to shake hands."
And finally, here are the Munich results, for anyone with patience enough to
have read through all that:
1. Wolfgang Nordwig GDR 5.50m 18' 1/4"
2. Bob Seagren USA 5.40m 17'8 1/2"
3. Jan Johnson USA 5.35m 17'6 1/2"
4. Reinhard Kuretzky GER 5.30m 17'4 1/2"
5. Bruce Simpson CAN 5.20m 17' 3/4"
6. Volker Ohl GER 5.20m 17' 3/4"
7. Hans Lagerqvist SWE 5.20m 17' 3/4"
8. François Tracanelli FRA 5.10m 16'8 3/4"
Cheers,
Roger
