Pole vaulter lands safely while his pole launches backward into orbit

Pole vaulting is the best example of a sport regular people find terrifying and athletes aren’t scared of at all. No matter which side you fall on, this GIF is terrifying:

I’ve spent most of the morning trying to find out where this happened, without luck. I can, however, tell you the “why.” Most pole vault problems stem from using a pole that is incorrectly matched to the athlete’s weight. On first appearance, it looks like he just lost grip of the pole. But it’s actually more likely that the pole was rated too high for the vaulter’s weight, which gave it too much flex, in turn launching out of his hands.

Thankfully it looked like the vaulter traveled forward enough to reach the mat. Otherwise, this could have been absolutely horrific.

h/t Reddit