BRAGG, DON

born May 15, 1935, Penns Grove, N.J., U.S. in full Donald Bragg American athlete who won a gold medal in the pole vault at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. On Feb. 13, 1959, he set a world indoor record by vaulting 15 feet 9 1/8 inches (4.8 m), and on July 2, 1960, he established a world outdoor mark of 15 feet 9 1/2 inches. At the 1960 Olympics he won a gold medal with a vault of 15 feet 5 1/8 inches . Nicknamed Tarzan, he was unusually heavy (190 pounds [86.36 kg]) for a pole-vaulter. Bragg's career took place during the predominance of the aluminum pole, which supplanted the bamboo pole and was itself superseded by the fibre-glass pole. After retirement as a vaulter, he became athletic director at Stockton State College, Pomona, N.J.