Could Missed-Pit Tragedy Have Been Averted?

Paul Steinbach Headshot

Upon learning that a pole-vaulter from Division III Grinnell College in Iowa had died this week from injuries sustained last Friday at the Midwest Conference track and field meet, I made four phone calls before someone could tell me the dimensions of the pit that sophomore Robert Yin had fatally missed to one side. This morning, an attorney for Illinois College, the meet host, called with the numbers: 24 feet deep by 21 feet, 6 inches wide.

Olympic medalist Jan Johnson, a three-time NCAA champion and USA Track and Field's pole-vault safety chair since 1995, was among those who couldn't tell me the exact dimensions of the Illinois College pit when I reached him yesterday, but having obtained photos of the pit in question from its manufacturer, he assured me that it was "big enough," meaning it met NCAA standards for depth (16 feet, 5 inches) and width (19 feet, 8 inches). When I asked him how any pit could be considered big enough if it allows a vaulter, as was the case with Yin, to only graze the side of the pit before landing on his back and slamming his head, Johnson noted that NCAA rules, unlike those applied to high school pole-vaulting, make no mention of padding hard surfaces around the pit. This extra safety measure typically takes the form of two-inch-thick high-density foam extending four feet from the pit's edges.

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