USATF Pop Quiz
By Hal Bateman, USATF historian
For the week of April 15
Q. Mildred Babe Didrikson was the outstanding woman track athlete at
the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She won three medals - two gold, one
silver. In what events did she win her medals?
Answer
A. Didrikson won the 80-meters hurdles and javelin and placed second to Jean
Shiley in the high jump.
Remember When - Warmerdam dominates
One of the most famous statistical barriers pursued by track and field
athletes in the last 100 years was the 15-foot pole vault (or 4.57 meters).
Nowadays, 15 feet is a mark of achievement for women, but when Cornelius Dutch
Warmerdam was just starting to pole vault, 15 feet had never been accomplished
by any man. Warmerdam was an unlikely candidate to be the first to break 15 feet
since his high school best at Hanford, Calif., was 12 feet, 3 inches, and his
college best at Fresno State was 14-0.
Warmerdam entered graduate school at Stanford University and continued to
vault, this time for the San Francisco Olympic Club. He vaulted 14-7.5 (4.46m)
in 1937, and that remained his best until April 13, 1940, when he was competing
in a meet at Berkeley, Calif.
Warmerdam was on that day, setting a personal record of 14-8.25 (4.48m)
to win the competition. He then had the bar raised to 15 feet (4.57m) and made
track and field history by clearing it on his second attempt. That mark lasted
only two weeks because on April 29 at Fresno, Warmerdam raised the record to15-1
(4.60m).
By the time fellow Hall of Famer Bob Richards became the second man to clear
15 feet in 1951, Warmerdam had pole vaulted at least 15 feet on 43 occasions.
Even more amazing is that Warmerdam did all this with a bamboo pole. He held the
world pole vault record for 17 years.
