Jim Roth is 70 years old and looks about 55. His grandson, Mitch Roth, is 16. The two of them are crazy about pole vaulting. Mitch even has a vaulting pit in his backyard which he bought from the local high school for $1.
I spied them hanging around the pit at the National Senior Olympics in Louisville wearing t-shirts that proclaim their pole vaulting kinship. Jim was waiting his turn to take a dash down the runway-Mitch was just here to watch, this time. About 25 other friends and family members were also there to provide added cheerleading support.
In 1955 Jim was the Kentucky state high school champion. His best vault was 12 feet, 8 inches, which doesn't seem so great these days until you consider the world record then was only 15 feet, 7 inches. Today's world record is 20 feet, 1 inch. The primary difference lies in the technology used for making pole vaulting poles.
But records are beside the point. The mere fact that Jim is competing is somewhat of a miracle considering he had a massive heart attack in 2003 and has three stents in his arteries. That frightening event caused him to change his lifestyle habits, to start eating healthier food and return to pole vaulting, a sport he had abandoned 48 years ago.
When Grandpa Roth told me he retired from his job in real estate only two months ago, I jokingly asked him if he was going to make pole vaulting a "fulltime avocation." He looked at me seriously and replied, "If there are more street vaulting and beach vaulting events to go to, it will be."
I didn't know this, but pole vaulting is no longer a just another of many events in track and field contests, it is has become somewhat of subculture with it's own community website [1] and an increasing number of public contests not necessarily tied into running and other jumping sports. In other words, like golf, it is becoming a stand-alone, lifelong sport.
Jim and his grandson are looking forward to the upcoming street vault in Fort Wayne, Indiana [2] on July 21. And you can tell they would rather be at events were both of them can participate.
The more I talked to these two the more amazing it got. Mitch's dad is also a pole vaulter as well as his little brother, Keiffer, who just shattered the 7 foot barrier in 6th grade. "Between all of us," Jim proclaims, "we can vault 48 feet!"
Not that it matters, but Jim Roth finished 3rd in the 70-74 year old category clearing the bar at 7 feet, 6 inches. The winner, Taylor Goode of Newport News, Virginia, just barely made 9 feet, ΒΌ inch.