# Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

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 6.25 metres (20 ft 6 in). 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 0.18 m (7 in) 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 5.75 m (18 ft 10+3⁄8 in), 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 5.85 m (19 ft 2+5⁄16 in). 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 6.00 m (19 ft 8+1⁄4 in), 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 6.10 m (20 ft 3⁄16 in), which he cleared easily. His next request was to move to 6.25 m (20 ft 6+1⁄16 in), 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.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.
| Record | Athlete (Nation) | Height (m) | Location | Date |
| World record | Armand Duplantis (SWE) | 6.24 | Xiamen, China | 20 April 2024 |
| Olympic record | Thiago Braz (BRA) | 6.03 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 15 August 2016 |
| World leading | Armand Duplantis (SWE) | 6.24 | Xiamen, China | 20 April 2024 |
| Area Record | Athlete (Nation) | Height (m) |
| Africa (records) | Okkert Brits (RSA) | 6.03 |
| Asia (records) | EJ Obiena (PHI) | 6.00 |
| Europe (records) | Armand Duplantis (SWE) | 6.24 WR |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) | KC Lightfoot (USA) | 6.07 |
| Oceania (records) | Steve Hooker (AUS) | 6.06 |
| South America (records) | Thiago Braz (BRA) | 6.03 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Athlete (Nation) | Height (m) | Record |
| 5 August | Final | Armand Duplantis (SWE) | 6.25 | WR, OR |

## 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 |
| 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.
| Rank | Group | Athlete | Nation | 5.40 | 5.60 | 5.70 | 5.75 | Height | Notes |
| 1 | A | Armand Duplantis | Sweden | – | o | – | o | 5.75 | q |
| 1 | A | Sondre Guttormsen | Norway | o | o | o | o | 5.75 | q, =SB |
| 1 | A | Emmanouil Karalis | Greece | – | o | o | o | 5.75 | q |
| 1 | A | Ersu Şaşma | Turkey | o | o | o | o | 5.75 | q |
| 1 | B | Oleg Zernikel | Germany | o | o | o | o | 5.75 | q |
| 6 | A | Menno Vloon | Netherlands | xo | o | o | o | 5.75 | q |
| 7 | A | EJ Obiena | Philippines | – | xx- | o | o | 5.75 | q |
| 8 | A | Sam Kendricks | United States | o | o | xo | xo | 5.75 | q |
| 9 | B | Huang Bokai | China | o | xxo | o | xo | 5.75 | q, =PB |
| 10 | A | Bo Kanda Lita Baehre | Germany | xo | o | xxo | xxo | 5.75 | q |
| 11 | A | Valters Kreišs | Latvia | o | o | o | xxx | 5.70 | q |
| 11 | A | Kurtis Marschall | Australia | o | o | o | | 5.70 | q |
| 13 | B | Claudio Stecchi | Italy | o | o | xo | xxx | 5.70 | SB |
| 14 | A | Thibaut Collet | France | o | xo | xxo | xxx | 5.70 | |
| 15 | A | Anthony Ammirati | France | o | o | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 15 | B | Ben Broeders | Belgium | o | o | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 15 | A | Simen Guttormsen | Norway | o | o | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 15 | B | Piotr Lisek | Poland | o | o | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 15 | A | Robert Sobera | Poland | o | o | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 20 | B | David Holý | Czech Republic | o | xo | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 20 | B | Yao Jie | China | o | xo | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 22 | A | Jacob Wooten | United States | o | xxo | xxx | | 5.60 | |
| 23 | B | Torben Blech | Germany | o | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 23 | B | Robin Emig | France | o | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 23 | B | Matěj Ščerba | Czech Republic | o | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 26 | B | Pedro Buaró | Portugal | xo | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 26 | B | Christopher Nilsen | United States | xo | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 26 | B | Zhong Tao | China | xo | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| 29 | B | Urho Kujanpää | Finland | xxo | xxx | | | 5.40 | |
| | B | Hussain Al-Hizam | Saudi Arabia | xxx | | | | NM | |
| | B | Pål Haugen Lillefosse | Norway | | | | | DNS | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | 5.50 | 5.70 | 5.80 | 5.85 | 5.90 | 5.95 | 6.00 | 6.10 | 6.25 | Height | Notes |
| | Armand Duplantis | Sweden | – | o | – | o | – | o | o | o | xxo | 6.25 | WR |
| | Sam Kendricks | United States | o | o | o | x- | o | o | xxx | – | – | 5.95 | =SB |
| | Emmanouil Karalis | Greece | o | o | o | o | o | x- | xx | – | – | 5.90 | |
| 4 | EJ Obiena | Philippines | o | o | x- | o | o | xxx | – | – | – | 5.90 | |
| 5 | Ersu Şaşma | Turkey | o | o | o | o | x- | xx | – | – | – | 5.85 | SB |
| 6 | Kurtis Marschall | Australia | o | o | x- | o | x- | xx | – | – | – | 5.85 | |
| 7 | Huang Bokai | China | o | xo | o | xxx | – | – | – | – | – | 5.80 | PB |
| 8 | Sondre Guttormsen | Norway | o | xxo | o | x- | x- | x | – | – | – | 5.80 | SB |
| 9 | Bo Kanda Lita Baehre | Germany | o | o | xx- | x | – | – | – | – | – | 5.70 | |
| 9 | Oleg Zernikel | Germany | o | o | xx- | x | – | – | – | – | – | 5.70 | |
| 11 | Menno Vloon | Netherlands | o | xxo | xxx | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5.70 | |
| 12 | Valters Kreišs | Latvia | xo | xxx | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5.50 | |