Calls for better safety measures for pole vaulters

Six weeks in Kelsey Koty's life are just a blank, spent first in a coma and then in intensive care. Still, she cannot wait to get back to pole vaulting, the very sport that almost killed her.

The Eastern Washington University student survived a head injury in an athletics event that one research group calls the most dangerous of all sports it studied.

Three U.S. athletes - a college sophomore and two high school students -have died in pole vaulting accidents in the past seven weeks after hitting their heads on hard surfaces. In the past two decades, on average, one U.S. vaulter has died each year.

The deaths have renewed calls for change. A bill in the New York Legislature calls for mandatory helmet use by high school and college vaulters, and at least one college coach has ordered his team to wear such protection.

But Koty and other athletes say that is not the solution.

"Had I been wearing a helmet, I still probably would have had a severe neck injury," she says.

"Just because you get in a car and put a seat belt on, don't think you're going to be totally safe."

Vaulters argue that the only helmets available are made for skateboarders or inline skaters, not for athletes who fall from the equivalent of a two-story building.

"I'm not for helmets. I wouldn't wear them," 2000 Olympic silver medalist Lawrence Johnson says.

"The things that helmets bring into play can make it more dangerous. Things on your head could throw off your balance or your general awareness."

Johnson and other athletes argue that proper technique is the key and that the sport is safer than ever if done right.

Jan Johnson, the 1972 Olympic bronze medalist, runs pole vaulting camps nationwide and leads USA Track & Field's committee on pole vault safety. One of the biggest problems in high schools, he says, is that even minimum safety standards are sometimes ignored.

Pole vaulting pits are supposed to be no smaller than 4.95 meters wide and extend 3.6-3.9 meters behind the metal box in which vaulters plant their poles.

Jan Johnson wants them even bigger, at least 5.9 meters wide, and 5 meters deep.

More important, he says, padding should be required on the area around the landing pit. Often the landing pads are on concrete that is not fully covered.

Jan Johnson first vaulted as a youth in his barnyard in 1963 and learned proper techniques at Bloom High School in Chicago Heights, Ill. He set a world indoor record in 1970 while attending Kansas.

"Pole vaulting pads are so much better today," he says.

"I vaulted onto hay bales and straw piles when I was growing up. People knew how to land on their feet. Today's kids are dependent on the pit being there and they have a perception the pit is going to catch them, as opposed to the perception we had 30 years ago that we had to know how to land."

Only two states do not have high school competition in pole vault - Iowa and Alaska.

Montwood High School in El Paso, Texas, banned pole vaulting for two years in the 1990s after a fatal accident. When the event returned, track coach Joe Vazquez bought kayaking helmets and made them mandatory.

Ed Dare, whose son Kevin, a Penn State sophomore, died recently in a pole vaulting accident, has been leading the fight for helmet requirements. He points out that hockey resisted helmets for years but now accepts them.

Idaho State track coach Dave Nielsen last week ordered all his vaulters to wear helmets. He also requires his two sons to use them when they compete in high school.

"One reason is it increases the safety a little bit. The other reason is to try to create the awareness for safety. The real issue is education," he says.

"This is a sport that has a great deal of height to it, and you're inverted. You put yourself in peril, so you find all the ways you can to protect yourself."

The most recent death was that of high school student Samoa Fili, 17, who was killed April 1 at the Wichita East Relays in Kansas. He fell about 3.6 meters onto the landing mat, but his head struck the concrete.

Dare, 19, died after a headfirst fall during the Big Ten indoor championships in February, and Jesus Quesada, 16, of Clewiston High School in Florida, died days earlier from a vaulting accident during practice.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, based at the University of North Carolina, says 15 fatal pole vaulting accidents happened at U.S. high schools from 1983 to 2000.

Deaths in college are much rarer, in part because skill, equipment and training are better.

In its report detailing severe injuries in high school sports ranging from football to cheerleading, the center estimated there were 25 000 high school pole vaulters and concluded:

"The catastrophic injury rate for high school pole vaulters would be higher than any of the sports included in the research."

Koty, 19, was vaulting in her first college meet in 2001 when she got hurt. She is now back at school and is trying to rebuild her strength and endurance so she can return to the sport.

"Pole vaulting was good to me up until I fell," she says.

"It's something I really like." She adds: "I could say to people, `Why do you get in a car every day?' In life, you have to do things you enjoy. You get out of bed in the morning. There are risks." - Sapa-Ap

On the Net Jan Johnson's site: www.skyjumpers.com

Ed Dare's site: www.vaultforlife.com

NCCSI site: www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi