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Show by Jim Murray Mumrrraiy mi pntt It's hard to take pole vault scoring system sitting down Someday, someone is going to have to explain to me the scoring system for the Olympic (or any other) pole vault. Someone with a good grasp of the occult. Or a love of eccentricities. Lewis Carroll perhaps. It says here that Pierre Quinon of France won the gold medal in the pole vault at LA. Inky dinky parley too Allez vous en! Get outta here! It's the only sport I know of outside of rowing you can win sitting down. Consider the '84 Olympics. The qualifying height, the minimum standard for admission to the competition was set at 17 feet 10 and 12 inches. But, then, the Russians and socialist bloc countries pulled out. It only took a piddling 17 II. 4 and to make the finals. Quinon made 17-8 1 i to qualify. Then, in the finals, he passed up, i.e., declined to jump, four successive heights. Then, ho jumped. Al 17-10'.. ne missed. He jumped again. He made it. He didn' t jump again till the bar reached 1 8-6 1 V2 . He missed that once. Then, he passed up that height, too. You can, unaccountably, do this in vaulting. Miss a height, then skip it altogether. Save two jumps for the higher altitudes. Meanwhile, back in the pit, America's Michael Tully, U.S. record holder and favorite for the event, had qualified at 17-10' had re-jumped that height plus 18-24. Then, he missed 18-6'a as had Quinon. Only i e kept jumping. He made it on his third attempt. Got that? Well, never mind. The thrust of it is, having made the height, he was now at a disadvantage to the Frenchman, Quinon, who had tried it once and said the hell with it. Figure that one out. And say goodnight, Grade. Monsieur Quinon then cleared 18-8 14. This forced Tully to pass that height. Even if he cleared it, the Frenchman would have won the event. On the pole vault rationale of "fewer misses at lower heights." Tully had two misses at 18-6 12. Quinon only had one. Never mind that Tully finally made the height. And Quinon didn't. Quinon really won the gold medal by skipping that height. Because, when he made 18-10 14, Tully had no option but to pass that height, too, and try for 19-14, which was within 34 of an inch of his best ever. "You go for the gold," he was to explain. "You don't play for a tie in the Olympics." You don't match your best-evers in an Olympics Games, either. Tully wrapped out at 19-14. So, as a matter of fact, did Quinon. But the gold was already his. There is something odoriferous about winning a game sitting on your backside. Like Max Schmeling winning the heavyweight title on a foul. A case could be made that Monsieur Quinon, after all, did make the two higher heights ultimately. But the Alice in Wonderland rules of the event made it fruitless for rival Tully to try to match those heights. The important thing to remember is that Tully did not MISS at those heights Quinon won. He ultimately misses at the same height Quinon also missed. Tully lost because of a height he MADE. And Quinon missed. The mouse won the cat-and-mouse game. Quinon won the pot on a hand he folded. The difference between a gold and silver medal in the Olympics well, let's put it this way: in this case it was only 3 and 34 inches on the scoreboard but it was, say, the distance between Paris and Tijuana. Lots of athletes feel they need the gold to pursue a show business career. From the days of Johnny Weissmuller to those of Bruce Jenner, it has been a foot in the stage door. But, Mike Tully's story was a switch. Mike Tully . already had a theatrical career. He had already appeared in such screen classics as "Calendar Girl Murders" and other screams in the night. He played an Army officer in "The Day After" and had appearances in the can in the TV shows "Hardcastle and McCormick" and "Matt Houston." He had to put show biz on hold for he Olympics. Tully was probably the best pole vaulter in the world he won two World Cups between the years 1976 and 1980. He was the world indoor record holder and the American record holder in those years until the Carter boycott grounded him. "I think I could have won the gold at Moscow," he recalls ruefully. Being a silver medalist is hardly likely to bring him parts Spencer Tracy used to play. Hollywood is not a second-place town. But if Mike Tully had had the presence of mind to murmur "Me, too," when the Gallic Quinon decided to pass up his last two jumps at 5.65 meters, well, Ronald Reagan started in sports, too. At the very least, he'd be getting some roles where he holds the girl instead of the door. (c) 1984, Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate. |
