Bob Seagren

Seagren's career is the fibreglass revolution in one story. He broke the world record several times with the new bending poles and won Olympic gold in Mexico City in 1968. Then, weeks before the 1972 Munich Games, the governing body banned the new model of pole he and others had been using, confiscated it, and handed him an unfamiliar replacement; he took silver behind Wolfgang Nordwig and protested angrily. No other career shows so clearly how equipment rules can decide an Olympic title.