the Curious Case of Sergey Bubka, part 1

statue of Bubka

i used to be a huge sports fan and watch many of them avidly. now i pretty much stick with the major championships (one dayers pretty much): Super bowl and boxing championships (between really top fighters, not redundant weight classes). i still consider myself a bit of a historian though in sports and still read about  many of them. 


since i was in hs or so i was interested in the Soviet sports system mainly because they would wup our asses internationally in many sports. yes i know, drugs were probably more systematic there, but that wasnt' the whole picture. they had a great system, schools, methods which i've studied.  a lot to learn actually, they were actually years ahead of us in much research, for instance the emphasis on not just speed or strength, bu tboth pf them used together in an athlete, which is the key to so much athletic achievement (witness running, jumping, throwing etc). 


anyway i like to read about their dominant athletes. one of them is maybe the most dominant of all athletes in history, Sergey bubka, the pole vaulter. no  one was close to him during his career for the most part, and though he's been retired for years and track and field records  usually fall quick, i don't think anyone's close to him now as far as the heights he's cleared , world records etc. amazing athlete: fast, strong, so great as a craftsman with the pole. 


yet as dominant as he was, he still showed weaknesses in his career...