Pole vault is a track and field event in which athletes attempt to clear a horizontal bar by sprinting down a runway and using a pole to catapult themselves into the air. The athlete who clears the highest bar without knocking the bar down wins.

Men's pole vault has been part of every modern Olympics. The women's event made its debut at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Athletes are allowed to place a substance on their hands or the pole to obtain a better grip, but are not permitted to use tape on their hands or fingers except to cover an open wound.

This question's too broad, but a small sample size of the 12 men's finalists in Paris calculate out to both an average and median of about 1.85 meters or 6 feet, 1 inch.

There's technically no limit — the pole may be of any length or diameter — however there's typically a range that works best for each vaulter's size and the heights they are trying to hit.

Yes, three men have vaulted over 20 feet: Sergey Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Mondo Duplantis.

Bubka first cleared the 6.10m mark in March 1991 and met or exceeded the mark 10 more times. Lavillenie became the next vaulter to accomplish the feat in February 2014, going 6.16, and Duplantis followed in February 2020 with a 6.17m.

Duplantis entered Paris having cleared 6.10m or higher 20 times.

Yelena Isinbayeva is the women's pole vault world record-holder at 5.06m (16 feet, 7 inches) from August 2009. She has the four best heights in history.

Mondo Duplantis' men's pole vault world record is 6.24m (20 feet, 6 inches) from April 2024. He owns 10 of the 12 best all-time heights.