As Google releases its ninth doodle to honor the London 2012 Olympics, the spotlight today turns to the pole vault. The Google doodle shows a female pole vaulter propelling herself high up in the air, well above the stadium and the crowd. The upper half of the Google logo is seen peeping behind the stadium wall.
In the sport of pole vault, athletes use a pole to jump- or vault- themselves over a metal bar which serves as their set target. The athletes choose the height which they jump over. After the height is completed, the bar is raised for the next set. If they fall in three consecutive jumps, they get eliminated.
Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka is the undefeated world record holder in the men’s division. The record he set on July 31, 1994 was at a height of 6.14 meters. It’s Russia’s Elena Isinbaeva who holds the women’s world record at 5.06 metres.
