A dutch treat. (Here Below).AT AGE 86, 61 YEARS AFTER stunning the track world with a vault of 15 feet, the greatest pole vaulter in the history of mankind passed away in his beloved town of Fresno. Say "a vault of 15 feet" today and not an eyebrow eyebrow /eye·brow/ (-brou) 1. supercilium; the transverse elevation at the junction of the forehead and the upper eyelid. 2. supercilia; the hairs growing on this elevation. in the world would go up. In the 1940's, it made everyone gasp. How could a human being soar that high at the end of a bamboo bamboo, plant of the family Gramineae (grass family), chiefly of warm or tropical regions, where it is sometimes an extremely important component of the vegetation. It is most abundant in the monsoon area of E Asia. pole? Nobody else had ever done it before and nobody would ever do it again, except the man who had done it the first time -- Cornelius (Dutch) Warmerdam. He would do it 43 more times, including a world record vault of 15 feet, 7 inches. A world war would come and go, 15 years would pass, and a new kind of pole (metal) would replace bamboo, and still another kind of pole (fiberglass) would replace metal before anyone would really start challenging Wamerdam's place in the sun (or, at least, clouds). Actually, it would take a whole new technology and training modality modality /mo·dal·i·ty/ (mo-dal´i-te) 1. a method of application of, or the employment of, any therapeutic agent, especially a physical agent. 2. to surpass the awesome young man who had revolutionized the event. Fate would help clip the angel's wings. Since there were no Olympics in 1940 and '44 and since Warmerdam as a coach would be ineligible in·el·i·gi·ble adj. 1. Disqualified by law, rule, or provision: ineligible to run for office; ineligible for health benefits. 2. in 1948, the Fresno prodigy An online information service that provides access to the Internet, e-mail and a variety of databases. Launched in 1988, Prodigy was the first consumer-oriented online service in the U.S. would never take home an Olympic gold Olympic Gold is the official video game of the XXV Olympic Summer Games, hosted by Barcelona, Spain in 1992. It was released for the Sega consoles, Mega Drive/Genesis and Master System, and Sega's handheld, Game Gear. . But make no mistake about it. Warmerdam clearly belongs among the 10 greatest track athletes in history. Imagine a pole vaulter owning an entire leg (15 feet) of his sport! How high might Dutch Warmerdam have gone with an aluminum pole? Maybe not much high-than 16 or 17 feet. (But he would have his 73 home runs!) How high would he have gone with a fiberglass pole? Up there with the eagles. |
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