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Source: Pole vault at the Olympics

The pole vault at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's pole vault has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's event is one of the latest additions to the programme, first being contested at the 2000 Summer Olympics – along with the addition of the hammer throw, this brought the women's field event programme to parity with the men's.
The Olympic records for the event are 6.26 m (20 ft 6+1⁄4 in) for men, set by Armand Duplantis in 2024, and 5.05 m (16 ft 6+3⁄4 in) for women, set by Yelena Isinbayeva in 2008. Isinbayeva's 2008 mark was a world record at the time and her 2004 victory in 4.91 m (16 ft 1+1⁄4 in) had been the first women's world record in the pole vault to be set at the Olympics. In spite of its longer history, the men's Olympic event has only seen three world record marks – a clearance of 4.09 m (13 ft 5 in) by Frank Foss at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, Władysław Kozakiewicz's vault of 5.78 m (18 ft 11+1⁄2 in) to win at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and Armand Duplantis' 2024 winning clearance of 6.25 m (20 ft 6 in).
William Hoyt was the first Olympic champion in 1896 and Stacy Dragila became the first female Olympic pole vault champion over 100 years later in 2000. Armand Duplantis and Katie Nageotte are the reigning Olympic champions from 2021. Yelena Isinbayeva, Bob Richards and Armand Duplantis are the only athletes to win two Olympic pole vault titles. Isinbayeva and Richards are also the only two athletes to win more than two Olympic medals in the discipline. The United States is the most successful nation in the event.