Another stupid story calling pole vault most dangerous sport

[rainbowgirl28]

Published on Kansas.com but it is from a news service.

http://www.thekansan.com/stories/090706 ... 7005.shtml

Pole vaulters, beware: Study ranks most dangerous high school sports


PUBLISHED: Thursday, September 7, 2006
By Henri Brickey
Morris News Service

LUBBOCK, Texas â€â€

[rainbowgirl28]

My response to this article (I was unable to fit it in their comment box):

Shame on you Kansas.com for publishing a generic story from a news service about a study that was published over 2 years ago and calling it news.

The figure used to make this conclusion is a participation rate of 25,000 high school pole vaulters per year. This figure is an ESTIMATE made by the national pole vault safety chair several years ago. Since this guess was made, the popularity of the women's pole vault has skyrocketed, and I firmly believe there are far more than 25,000 high school vaulters participating today.

The study this article was based off can be found at http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/AllSport.htm

A quote from the study: "It has been estimated that there are approximately 25,000 high school pole vaulters annually. If this number is correct, the catastrophic injury rate for high school pole vaulters would be higher than any of the sports included in the research."

The study itself made no attempt to determine the participation rate of pole vaulters in the United States, and clearly states that it's entire conclusion is based off the number 25,000, an estimation made several years before the study was published.

Since this study has been published, pole vault pits are now required to be larger. Since this change was made, there has not been a single death in the event.

Negative publicity may sell more newspapers, but there is nothing newsworthy about this article.

Becca Gillespy
Pole Vault Power
http://www.polevaultpower.com/

[vaultmd]

I don't know how far that will get us. That's the same state that has a problem with evolution.

[vault3rb0y]

LOL good point.... it just dissapoints me to see people claiming pole vaulting is so dangerous. Yes, there is an obvious danger, but clearly football and cheerleading are just as dangerous. On top of this, i havent done research but i would be willing to assume that most of injuries that come from pole vaulting nowadays are from vaulters with no coaches, picking up the wrong pole and holding at the wrong hieght. If football wasnt coached, or they didnt tell football players how to avoid injury by keeping your head up and not hitting below the thighs... i wonder how many more catastrophic injuries would occur. Way to defend the sport, becca!!

[Sean/vaulter/naeS]

hey any sport can be dangerous if you do it wrong, just because pole vault hase the highest rate means nothing as said before it is probably from lack of coaching.

[theczar]

i have two words for that article....or two abbreviations anaway....

BS!!!

[distancejumper]

I'm assuming that most of those deaths were from people that are complet dumb(insert naughty word for butt here), so you can't blame the sport for that.

[hellomotto08]

hahahaha i just laugh at things like that. Although i do see why making a mistake pole vaulting is MUCH more dangerous than making an equivellent mistake in any other sport. but you know what, we are pole vaulters, we know the risk, and thas what makes us all great!

VIVA POLE VAULTERS!

[VTechVaulter]

I'm assuming that most of those deaths were from people that are complet dumb(insert naughty word for butt here), so you can't blame the sport for that.

thats not necessarily true. The three deaths that occured in 2001 none of them were caused by vaulters doing anything out of the ordinary. Especially in the case of high school vaulting, safety needs to be priority number one and enforced by the coach and parents.

[lonestar]

I'm assuming that most of those deaths were from people that are complet dumb(insert naughty word for butt here), so you can't blame the sport for that.

thats not necessarily true. The three deaths that occured in 2001 none of them were caused by vaulters doing anything out of the ordinary. Especially in the case of high school vaulting, safety needs to be priority number one and enforced by the coach and parents.

I hope "tapping" and the false sense of security it brings with regards to understanding your own limits is out of the ordinary now, 5 years later.