The men's pole vault at the 2024 Summer Olympics took place on 3 and 5 August 2024 at Stade de France. This was the 30th time that the event was contested at the Summer Olympics. Sweden's Armand Duplantis won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal, setting a world record of . Sam Kendricks of the United States earned the silver, while Emmanouil Karalis of Greece took the bronze.

Background The reigning Olympic champion Armand Duplantis has dominated the event since 2018, winning every major championship except for the 2019 World Championships and advancing the world record ten times since 2020. He sets his world records by 1 cm increments to pick up record bonuses as often as possible but frequently clears the bar by large margins. Only two other athletes have jumped within of his record since he started his run: KC Lightfoot, who was not able to qualify through the US trials, and Sam Kendricks, who performed the jump in the 2019 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships en route to beating Duplantis in that competition. Aside from Duplantis, Lightfoot, and Kendricks, only four other contemporary vaulters have recorded vaults of over 6 meters: Thiago Braz while winning the 2016 Olympics, Piotr Lisek, Chris Nilsen, and EJ Obiena. Nilsen, the returning silver medalist, is the only other athlete to successfully surpass that height this year. Braz, the bronze medalist from 2020, was serving a drug suspension and did not participate.

Summary In the qualification round, 10 athletes cleared , five with perfect rounds including Duplantis. Two others with perfect rounds to 5.70 m also advanced. Nilsen and Lisek did not advance.

In the final, ten took jumps at . Emmanouil Karalis, Ersu Şaşma, and Duplantis had clean rounds going. It was only Duplantis's second jump of the competition. Kendricks and Sondre Guttormsen missed their first attempt and passed. Huang Bokai made three unsuccessful attempts. At 5.90 m, Duplantis passed. Kendricks, Karalis, and Obiena all cleared on their first attempts. Kurtis Marschall, Şaşma, and Guttormsen missed once and passed to the next height. None of them would make it.

At 5.95 m, Kendricks and Duplantis made their first attempts; Karalis missed once and passed to , which he had never cleared before. Obiena took all three of his attempts and failed. Only Duplantis cleared 6.00 m (on his first attempt) and the medals were settled; Obiena's earlier miss at 5.80 m gave Karalis the bronze and Kendricks silver. Having secured the gold medal, Duplantis asked for the bar to be set to an Olympic record , which he cleared easily. His next request was to move to , in an attempt to set a new world record, which he cleared on his third and final attempt.

Less than three weeks after the Olympics, Duplantis improved the world record again at 6.26 m in Silesia. Coincidentally, Duplantis, Kendricks, and Karalis repeated their placements and also won their respective medals.

Ammirati incident

One of the more memorable moments of the 2024 Olympics athletics programme—and of the 2024 Games as a whole—happened during the qualification round of the men's pole vault, when French competitor Anthony Ammirati failed one of his jumps when the bar appeared to be struck by his penis. A clip of the failed attempt subsequently went viral, and Ammirati was offered a $250,000 webcamming contract by pornographic streaming platform CamSoda. Variety described Ammirati as one of the most viral athletes at that Games, along with Yusuf Dikeç and Stephen Nedoroscik.

Qualification

For the men's pole vault event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 32 athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by jumping the entry standard of 5.82 m or higher or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.Sean McAlister, "How to qualify for athletics at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained ", Olympics.com, 20 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2024.

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

RecordAthlete (Nation)Height (m)LocationDateWorld record6.24"All time Top lists – Senior – Pole vault men ", World Athletics, 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.Xiamen, China20 April 2024Olympic record6.03Rio de Janeiro, Brazil15 August 2016World leading6.24"Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – Pole vault men ", World Athletics, 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.Xiamen, China20 April 2024 Area Record Athlete (Nation)Height (m)Africa (records)6.03Asia (records)6.00Europe (records)6.24 WRNorth, Central America and Caribbean (records)6.07Oceania (records)6.06South America (records)6.03

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Event Athlete (Nation) Height (m) Record 5 August Final 6.25 ,

Schedule All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

The men's pole vault took place over two separate days.

Date Time Round Saturday, 3 August 2024 10:10 Qualifying"Paris 2024 - Olympic Schedule - Athletics ", Olympics.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024. Monday, 5 August 2024 19:00 Final

Results

Qualification 32 athletes qualified for the first round by qualification time or world ranking.

Qualification Rules: Qualifying performance 5.80 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

RankGroupAthleteNation5.405.605.705.75HeightNotes 1AArmand Duplantis– o– o 5.75 ASondre Guttormsen o o o o 5.75 , =AEmmanouil Karalis– o o o 5.75 AErsu Şaşma o o o o 5.75 BOleg Zernikel o o o o 5.75 6AMenno Vloon xo o o o 5.75 7AEJ Obiena– xx- o o 5.75 8ASam Kendricks o o xo xo5.75 9BHuang Bokai o xxo o xo 5.75 , =10ABo Kanda Lita Baehre xo o xxo xxo 5.75 11AValters Kreišs o o o xxx 5.70 AKurtis Marschall o o o 5.70 13BClaudio Stecchi o o xo xxx 5.70 14AThibaut Collet o xo xxo xxx 5.7015AAnthony Ammirati o o xxx 5.60BBen Broeders o o xxx 5.60ASimen Guttormsen o o xxx 5.60BPiotr Lisek o o xxx 5.60ARobert Sobera o o xxx5.6020BDavid Holý o xo xxx5.60BYao Jie o xo xxx 5.6022AJacob Wooten o xxo xxx5.6023BTorben Blech o xxx5.40BRobin Emig o xxx5.40BMatěj Ščerba o xxx5.4026BPedro Buaró xo xxx5.40BChristopher Nilsen xo xxx5.40BZhong Tao xo xxx5.4029BUrho Kujanpää xxoxxx5.40BHussain Al-HizamxxxBPål Haugen Lillefosse

Final RankAthleteNation5.505.705.805.855.905.956.006.106.25HeightNotesArmand Duplantis –o –o–oooxxo6.25Sam Kendricksooox-ooxxx–5.95=Emmanouil Karalisooooox-xx–5.904EJ Obienaoox-ooxxx–5.905Ersu Şaşmaoooox-xx–5.856Kurtis Marschalloox-ox-xx–5.857Huang Bokaioxooxxx–5.808Sondre Guttormsenoxxoox-x-x–5.809Bo Kanda Lita Baehreooxx-x–5.70Oleg Zernikelooxx-x–5.7011Menno Vloonoxxoxxx–5.7012Valters Kreišsxoxxx–5.50

References