Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The only returning vaulter from the pre-war 1936 Games was sixth-place finisher Richard Webster of Great Britain. American Cornelius Warmerdam had dominated the pole vault during World War II, breaking the world record three times and increasing the record a total of 23 centimetres; however, he had retired in 1944. Boo Morcom was the favorite in London, having won the 1945, 1947, and 1948 AAU championships (the last tied with Bob Richards) and tied the Olympic trials with Guinn Smith. However, Morcom was injured at the Games.[1]

Iceland and Puerto Rico each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every Olympic men's pole vault to that point.

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1912, with results cleared between rounds. Vaulters received three attempts at each height. For the first time (other than the impromptu decision in 1936 after two Japanese vaulters refused to jump-off against each other), ties were broken by fewest misses.

In the qualifying round, the bar was set at heights including 3.60 metres, 3.70 metres, 3.80 metres, 3.90 metres, and 4.00 metres. All vaulters clearing 4.00 metres advanced to the final.

In the final, the bar was set at heights of 3.60 metres, 3.80 metres, 3.95 metres, 4.10 metres, 4.20 metres, 4.30 metres, and 4.40 metres.[1][3]

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Cornelius Warmerdam (USA)	4.77	Modesto, United States	23 May 1942
Olympic record	Earle Meadows (USA)	4.35	Berlin, Germany	5 August 1936

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Key

Qualifying round

Qual. rule: qualification standard 4.00m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Height	Notes
1	Guinn Smith	United States	4.00	Q
	Erkki Kataja	Finland	4.00	Q
	Bob Richards	United States	4.00	Q
	Erling Kaas	Norway	4.00	Q
	Ragnar Lundberg	Sweden	4.00	Q
	Boo Morcom	United States	4.00	Q
	Hugo Göllors	Sweden	4.00	Q
	Valto Olenius	Finland	4.00	Q
	Joe Barbosa	Puerto Rico	4.00	Q
	José Vicente	Puerto Rico	4.00	Q
	Victor Sillon	France	4.00	Q
	Allan Lindberg	Sweden	4.00	Q
13	Georges Breitman	France	3.90
14	Theodosios Balafas	Greece	3.80
	Torfi Bryngeirsson	Iceland	3.80
16	Luis Ganoza	Peru	3.70
17	Charles Bouvet	France	3.60
	Richard Webster	Great Britain	3.60
	Jaime Piqueras	Peru	3.60

Final

All vaulters cleared or passed at 3.60 metres and 3.80 metres; jump sequences for those heights are not available.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	3.95	4.10	4.20	4.30	4.40	Height
	Guinn Smith	United States	xo	xo	o	xxo	x--	4.30
	Erkki Kataja	Finland	o	o	o	xxx	N/A	4.20
	Bob Richards	United States	o	xo	xo	xxx	N/A	4.20
4	Erling Kaas	Norway	o	o	xxx	N/A		4.10
5	Ragnar Lundberg	Sweden	o	xxo	xxx	N/A		4.10
6	Boo Morcom	United States	o	—	xxx	N/A		3.95
7	Hugo Göllors	Sweden	xo	xxx	N/A			3.95
	Valto Olenius	Finland	xo	xxx	N/A			3.95
9	José Barbosa	Puerto Rico	xxo	xxx	N/A			3.95
	José Vicente	Puerto Rico	xxo	xxx	N/A			3.95
	Victor Sillon	France	xxo	xxx	N/A			3.95
12	Allan Lindberg	Sweden	xxx	N/A				3.80

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2016.