Abstract 
 
 Pole vaulting is a unique sport in that athletes often land from heights ranging from 10 to 20 feet. We retrospectively reviewed 32 catastrophic pole-vault injuries that were reported to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research between 1982 and 1998. The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanisms of injury so that preventive strategies can be implemented. Information was obtained by means of a telephone interview with someone familiar with the accident. All injuries occurred in male athletes at an average age of 17.5 years; 31 were catastrophic head injuries and 1 was a thoracic spine fracture that resulted in paraplegia. Three common mechanisms were identified: 17 (53%) athletes landed with their body on the landing pad and their head on the surrounding hard ground, 8 (25%) landed in the vault box after being stranded at the height of the jump, and 5 (16%) completely missed the landing pad. The mechanism of injury in the remaining two athletes was unknown. The accident resulted in death in 16 (50%) athletes and in permanent disability in 6 (19%). Increasing the minimum landing pad size and enforcing the rule requiring soft surfaces adjacent to the landing pads are the primary recommendations for preventing injuries. The authors discuss other rule and equipment changes that may help reduce the occurrence of future injuries. ||||| Abstract 
 
 Background: Although pole vaulting has been a sanctioned collegiate event since the 1920s, little is known about the injury patterns observed in the sport. 
 
 Purpose: To describe injury incidence, patterns, and risks in collegiate pole vaulters. 
 
 Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. 
 
 Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of collegiate athletes participating in pole vault over a single track-and-field season. Baseline athlete information was collected on study enrollment. Injuries were recorded in a standardized form to document diagnosis and event circumstances. A log of practice and competition exposures was maintained for each athlete. Injury incidence was reported as the proportion of injured vaulters and number of new injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures. Regression analysis on baseline variables was performed to determine risks for injury. 
 
 Results: A total of 135 vaulters from 15 universities took part in the study. There were 70 injury events reported during 8823 exposures. Forty-one percent of vaulters sustained injury, and there were 7.9 injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures. The low back was the most common injury location (16.7%), followed by the hamstrings and lower leg (13.9% each). Overall, 60% of injuries were to the lower extremities, 21% to the upper extremities, and 18% to the back. No head or neck injuries were reported. Injuries were most commonly muscular strains (39.2%) or overuse type (25.5%). Thirty percent, including 83% of low back injuries, occurred during the plant/takeoff phase of the vault. One-third of lumbar injuries were spondylolysis, with 75% of these being season ending. The odds of injury were 2.7 (95% CI, 1.1-7.1) times greater in vaulters with multiple prior injuries. ||||| Nik Wallenda says it was a "miracle" that his co-performers — including members of his "Flying Wallendas" family — are expected to completely recover after falling more than 30 feet during a high-wire stunt in Sarasota. 
 
 "If you don't believe in God, you better start now," the tightrope daredevil said Thursday, a day after five people dropped to the floor and were seriously injured inside a Big Top tent erected for Circus Sarasota, which is slated to open Friday. 
 
 The incident is under investigation, but Wallenda and circus officials said one of the performers may have lost his or her balance while practicing an eight-person pyramid. Wallenda it was very warm as they were practicing. 
 
 "We were halfway out on the wire and a couple of people on the front got kicked around and started to lose their balance. I thought someone may have fainted. We just don't know," he said. 
 
 Three were brought to Sarasota Memorial Hospital and the others to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and Blake Medical Center. 
 
 The names of the injured have not been released by officials. However, Nik's uncle Rick Wallenda said the most seriously hurt were his sister, Rietta Wallenda, and cousin Lijana Wallenda. Rietta sustained a broken hip and Lijana, who is also Nik's sister, has a broken jaw, a lacerated liver and other broken bones, Rick Wallenda said. 
 
 Nik Wallenda said doctors told him all five would recover, but that typically "people don't live from accidents like this." Wallenda credits the performers' athleticism, saying each is "limber, agile." 
 
 The group had been practicing the stunt 16 times a day, 12 feet off the ground for two months. Wallenda said they don't use a net when training, because it "provides a false sense of security." The goal was to break a Guinness World Record, he said. 
 
 But, "accidents happen," he said, and it's something the group prepares for. 
 
 One person fell 40 feet had only three broken toes, he said. Another fell about 30 feet and "walked out of the ring immediately." 
 
 Wallenda did not fall and was not injured. 
 
 "I grabbed the wire and climbed hand over hand onto the platform," Wallenda said. 
 
 Wallenda said he rode with Lijana in the ambulance to the hospital, and she talked the entire way. 
 
 "It's been a rough couple of days," he said. "Yesterday was the roughest day in my life and I've had some rough days." 
 
 Pedro Reis, founder and CEO of the Sarasota Circus Arts Conservatory which puts on the show, said the circus will open as planned Friday in a Big Top tent at Nathan Benderson Park behind University Town Center mall. 
 
 Wallenda has promised the group's show will go on in honor of the injured. 
 
 "Three words I live by: Never give up," he said. 
 
 Wallenda, who is billed as the headliner, said he did not believe the incident would negatively affect the show. 
 
 "My opinion is it will sell out quick so buy your tickets now," he said. 
 
 Rick Wallenda is still scheduled to perform his death defying craft at St. Petersburg's Sundial this Saturday at 5 p.m. despite Wednesday's fall being a reminder of the dangers of what he does. 
 
 He will cross the courtyard by walking a cable no bigger than an index finger, without the use of a harness of safety net. 
 
 Prior to the skywalk, there will be other circus-themed performers beginning at 4 p.m. 
 
 Participating Sundial retailers will donate proceeds back to Habitat for Humanity. 
 
 Nik Wallenda, 38, a seventh-generation performer, has found fame performing daredevil high-wire walks over Niagara Falls, a gorge near the Grand Canyon, between Chicago skyscrapers and across the rim of the Orlando Eye observation wheel. 
 
 While performing around the world, Wallenda and his family have lived in Sarasota, a mecca for circus performers since the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus began making its winter home there 90 years ago. 
 
 Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
– If the words "pole vaulting" don't inspire fear in you, they should. That's the upshot of a Vice article about the sport, which succinctly expresses why: "At 20 feet, a pole vault accident is like someone falling off the roof of their house, while running as fast at they can with a thick pole in their hands." If that sounds like a brush with death, it quite literally can be: A 2001 study analyzed the 32 catastrophic pole-vault injuries that were reported to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research between 1982 and 1998; half the accidents resulted in death, and 6 in permanent disabilities. A follow-up study published in 2012 noted that one safety-related change made in 2003 was an expansion of the landing pad's minimum dimensions. In the 8 years that followed, the study noted only two of the 19 catastrophic injuries were fatal. But the rest weren't pretty: major head injuries and spine or pelvic fractures were among them. And a study of collegiate pole vaulters published this last January found 41% sustained some kind of injury, a figure that researchers saw as suggestive of the fact that "injuries are very common in experienced vaulters." The injury stats aren't good, and the potential pay and fame aren't much better. So why the heck do it? Vice talked to US record-holder Brad Walker (one of 18 men to ever clear 6 meters), who sums up vaulters as "risk-takers, usually with something to prove to themselves ... you won't find a vaulter jumping high who doesn't have at least one screw loose." As for why they stay with it, Vice points to its highly technical and challenging nature: As you approach the box you're a sprinter; then you're a gymnast. Walker says you need "significant body control and spatial awareness," too.