Why Is This Important?
Because Allison Stokke is likely the only pole vaulter you can name, so who better to demonstrate how difficult it is?
Long Story Short
Allison Stokke stars in episode one of GoPro's "Two Roads," a series that follows lesser-known athletes as they pursue greatness. She talks about everything from becoming a viral sensation to the grueling training involved in pole vaulting.
Long Story
Pole vaulting isn't exactly a mainstream sport, so you're forgiven for not knowing many names. But one name you probably do know is Crush List nominee Allison Stokke, and you probably know her because of one (now) famous photo:
UnknownThat's a photo of Allison at a track meet in high school (it's OK, she was 18 at the time), and around 2007 it blew up on the internet. She's since amassed an impressive online following, but it's easy to forget that she is, first and foremost, a pole vaulter.
Her fame, looks and the difficulty of her chosen sport made her the ideal subject for the first episode of GoPro's "Two Roads," an online series that follows lesser-known athletes as they chase greatness.
It's easy to dismiss pole vaulting as more of a "skill" than an athletic endeavor, at least until you see it from the athlete's perspective. Holy shit! The timing, the speed and the strength required to swing your legs into position and pull yourself against the pole's resistance looks insane. The training looks as grueling as it is monotonous. Practicing under water appears to be a good way to train the mechanics without breaking your neck, but on the field it's just jump after jump. If you notice, Allison has some pretty gnarly callouses from so many years of training.
What makes the video (and ostensibly, the whole series) is that, as Allison mentions, there's no glamor in it. No one will ever make a ton of money pole vaulting. There's the Olympics, but outside of those no one cares much about track and field sports. The people who compete, even when no one's watching, are those who truly love it and want their name in the record books. That's pretty neat.
Vote for Allison in this year's Crush List here.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question: Will someone like Allison make sports like pole vaulting more mainstream?
Disrupt Your Feed: I would absolutely die if I tried to do what she does.
Drop This Fact: Pole vaulting began in Europe as a means of transportation over un-bridged canals.