How do you win the pole vault?

• The pole: the athlete runs with a pole, plants its end in a box sunk into the ground and swings up on it.
• The bar: 4.50 m long, resting on two pegs. It falls towards the landing area if it is touched hard enough.
• A try: each attempt is a trial. A clearance is shown as O, a failure as X and a pass as a dash.
• The heights: announced before the competition starts. The bar is raised at the end of each round of trials.
• Choosing: an athlete may start at any announced height and may pass any later height.
• Out: "Three consecutive failures, regardless of the height at which any of such failures occur", end the athlete's competition.
• The result: the best height the athlete cleared.
• Measuring: in whole centimetres from the ground to the lowest part of the upper side of the bar.
• Level on height: the place goes to the athlete with fewer vaults at the last height cleared, then to the one with fewer failures in the whole competition. A tie for first can go to a jump-off.
• The clock: normally one minute for each trial.
• Moving the bar: each athlete chooses how far back from the box the bar stands for their vault, up to 80 cm.

Raising the bar step by step turns one question, who can vault highest, into a series of pass-or-fail tests that everyone can follow. Most of the event's own rules are about the pole: what the athlete may do with it in the air, and who may touch it after it has been let go.