M70 vaulter Gérard Dumas may not go high, but boy does he go long! After posting that he jumped 8 feet a month ago, I learned something awe-inspiring. Gérard’s fellow British Columbian, Roger Ruth, wrote me: “Gérard’s most outstanding vaulting datum, aside from his pre-eminent position as a statistician, is his unbroken string of years of competition. With the indoor mark you mentioned, he has had at least one mark in a sanctioned meet for 60 consecutive years . . . He vaulted 2.12 in 1948 and hasn’t missed a year since.” Today Gérard turned 72, and I sent him a note (subject line: Happy Birthday, Your Highness.”) I also asked some questions.

Gérard replied almost immediately, saying: “Quite a surprise to get this on my birthday. Quite a gift to see that some people are remotely interested in this career of mine. Really ordinary, mediocre at best. . . . You can say that I was never good — but always there. The funny thing is that I still enjoy jumping even if it’s low.”
Here’s my quickie Q&A with His Longness:

How did you become a vaulter?
Being in France I was reading article on Cornelius Warmerdam’s feats when I was 9. I started in 1948 with school meets.
What poles have you used over the years?
My grandfather cut me a branch of Hazelnut tree, peel it and dried it. He was making baskets at the time. I used metal, aluminium and for a short while bamboo. Switched to fiberglass poles after fifteen years of still poles. Never learnt properly the new technique.
What are your PBs — indoors and out?
4.53m or 14’10 ½” 4.21m or 13’10 ½” with the metal. 4.00m or 13’1 ½” with the bamboo. My best indoor is 4.42m or 14’6” in 1967.
Have you done any other events besides PV? If so, what were your all-time bests?
High Jump as a youth (age 17) 1,72m or 5’7½” (with) Californian roll. It is my height as well. In PV: USA (masters) champion in 1976 and 1979.
When did you start your vault stat work?
I started to list vaulters back in 1953. It was a very amateurish thing — and still is.
When did you begin coaching?
I started to coach in 1959.
Who were your best athletes? Their marks?
Owen Clements and Kirk Heywood both Canadian senior champions 1994,1995. They were 5.40m and 5.35m athletes. I had a girl a few years ago who did 13 feet.
Where do you publish your vault stats?
I put out three editions of my “Who’s Who in Pole Vaulting,” privately published. Total number of books (printed) 150. Sold 75. Gave (away) others. None left. Working on a fourth edition, which is due in 2010. The book had 800 pages and was 5 lbs heavy. Hard bound.
Is it true you are near 1,000 vault competitions?
I am jumping next Thursday and it will be my 989th. competition. Hope to reach 1000 this year. If not injured, I should be able to do this, but who knows?
Have you come across any other vaulter with more consecutive years jumping, or more competitions?
I don’t know if anyone has been that silly — yet.
What are your competition plans the rest of the season?
I am expecting to be entered in 14 more meets this year.
How many more years of vaulting do you have left in you?
I would like to jump another 5 years, but the legs are crying mercy and the performances are getting ridiculous. I also had a shoulder operation a year ago which slowed me down, and I had to vault under an assumed names 7 months after the operation so that the surgeon would not shoot me.

Shoot him? Merci, no.
One who holds Gérard in the highest esteem is his friend Roger Ruth, who held the M40 world vault record for many years.
Talking about Gérard’s longevity record, Roger (who turns 80 in December) writes: “Every vaulter would know that’s a career record that couldn’t be accomplished without vaulting despite injury and through the pain.”
Roger then recalls his own career:
“I thought I was pretty good at that until I tore a rotator cuff during my last world masters meet. That was my only masters vault loss, and happened in a jump-off after the RC injury at the winning height.
“I should have been able to come back from that after surgery, but the surgeon (who had done good work on four knee operations) left for Uganda and an assignment for Doctors Without Borders the day after the cuff repair and didn’t give any post-op exercise instructions. I ended up with a shoulder full of adhesions. He ended up with an Order of Canada award–received just last week–for his work in Uganda.
“Anyway, my seventh and eighth knee surgeries were replacements, and you can’t jump, or even run, after those, so I guess I’m happily retired to women’s vault stats. And I ended up only about 800 meets short of Gérard’s current total. Close.”
Close is the word for Roger’s association with women’s vaulting.
And here’s a prized photo of Roger with a then-unknown vaulter named Stacy Dragila: