I recently attended a talk given by Noelle Pikus-Pace who won the silver medal in the sport of skeleton at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Before she got into skeleton, she was dedicated to becoming a collegiate athlete in track in field. Noelle competed in the decathlon which is an event that covers ten track and field events including the high jump and pole vault.
The jumping events have a horizontal bar held up by two poles called standards. The standards mark the height of the bar and when the event begins the standards move up as jumpers clear the bar. The standards and bar never go down throughout the competition, once they are set, they only go up.
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