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Catching Up With . . .
Steve Smith, Olympic Pole Vaulter
February 12, 1973
Posted: Tue June 23, 1998
During
his heyday as
one of the world's top pole vaulters, Steve
Smith was a wild man. His hair was long and curly. He wore
a hideous pair
of red ski pants, held up by
suspenders, as warmups during meets. When he wasn't vaulting,
he surfed.
When he wasn't surfing, he talked.
And talked. And
talked.
Some things have changed since
Smith competed at the 1972 Olympics.
He has a wife and two kids, with a
third due any day. He's a
real estate agent. His hair is no longer long, and
the red pants are buried deep in a
closet. Yet some things never change. Smith, 46, may be
older, but he's not any quieter. The man who set an
indoor world record in '75 by vaulting
18'5" has a lot to say about track and field. Little of
it is good. "Too often, the politicians
dictate what goes," he
says. "Those guys drive Rollses, and I was the guy
driving a Volkswagen.
Sports is supposed to be
about competition, but
sadly it's
not."
Smith was picked to win the bronze at the 1972
Games, but the
day before competition began, the International Amateur
Athletic Federation (IAAF) upheld a challenge by the East
Germans of the poles favored by the American vaulters, and
Smith and many other competitors were forced to use their
old, heavier poles. "It
was like trying to catch a marlin on a salmon line," he
says. "The difference is huge." Smith jumped
poorly and failed to
qualify.
Smith joined the professional International Track
Association in '73, but when that organization folded three
years later, he applied to regain amateur status, which was
restored in '79. The U.S. Olympic Committee refused to
recognize his
reinstatement, so he had to get a restraining order to force it to let
him try out for the '80 team—an empty gesture since
everyone already knew the U.S. was boycotting the Moscow
Games.
(Smith made the honorary team as an
alternate.)
Smith's
career
ended in '83, when his left ankle was badly injured in a
car accident. These days Smith, who lives in Springfield,
Ore., competes in local senior events, mostly as a sprinter
and occasionally as a pole vaulter. (He can clear 15 feet.)
"I'm excited about
track again," Smith says. "This summer I'll be
taking on Carl Lewis in the 100 in a $5 million showdown.
The man is in
trouble."
—by Jeff
Pearlman
photos by Jack Smith; John D. Hanlon (cover)
Issue date: June 29, 1998
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