Maximum efficiency and the economy of effort

When Yelena Isinbaeva cleared her first vault of the final at 4.70m, there were five competitors left from the original twelve. By the time she cleared her second vault of 4.85m, she was Olympic champion. To complete her warm up for a world record attempt, she took 3 attempts to clear 4.95m, an Olympic record, and then it took her another 3 attempts to vault 5.05m and set her 24th world record in the pole vault.