# Old high jump landing areas **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062 "2002-11-16T20:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/1 "2002-11-16T20:38:14Z")
I was watching the DVD of Kon Ichikawa’s “Tokyo Olympiad”, a very good documentary on the 1964 games. During the high jump competition, the competitors didn’t land on the one piece rubber cushions that are in use now, but rather a mound of loose materials. It looked like there were some foam squares of some kind, but I couldn’t figure out what they were. Regardless, it didn’t look comfortable. Even the pole vaulters landed on some materials of this kind, but you could see a big cushion underneath. Any ideas what this was? It’s also weird to see guys high jump without flopping. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/2 "2002-11-16T21:11:02Z")
Back when I was jumping (albeit not at the olympic level), we had large oval nets filled with foam rubber pieces – the foam rubber was about 2"-4" irregular shapes. The pole vault guys had bigger versions of the same. The things were a real PITA. They couldn’t get wet, or they would be soggy and smell even worse than normal. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/3 "2002-11-16T21:21:57Z")
Back in the Old Silurian Era the landing pit was just an area filled in with loose sand. That was before pole valuters risked going into orbit. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/4 "2002-11-16T21:41:59Z")
Before foam pits, I recall seeing them use a big pile of wood chips. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/5 "2002-11-17T03:59:31Z")
Thanks. The pole vaulters looked like they were landing in a pile of loose tissues. A related question to this is: the 1964 Olympic pole vault competition took over 9 hours to finish? Why did it take so long? Presumably there were no time limits then to force the jumpers to move along so they just waited for the most favorable conditions? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/6 "2002-11-17T04:43:38Z")
I high-jumped in 1959-62 in high school. The pit was sawdust. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/7 "2002-11-17T04:50:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*I high-jumped in 1959-62 in high school. The pit was sawdust. \*\* Wasn’t that about when Boston was dreaming of clearing 7 foot? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-high-jump-landing-areas/137062/8 "2002-11-17T04:55:49Z")
Our elementary school had sawdust landing pits too. I hated doing track and field because you would always get sawdust in some mighty uncomfortable places.