http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/sports/olympics/for-pole-vaulters-travel-may-be-hardest-part.html?hp

Most airline baggage policies say poles are accepted as checked
baggage on mainline planes. In practice, that can vary based on the employee at
the counter.

“Traveling with the poles is just horrible; it’s the absolute worst part about
this whole thing,” Hollis said recently. “The hardest is when other athletes
complain. The sprinters have a gripe? Do you know what I wouldn’t give just to
be able to throw my spikes in a bag and go?”

Fees and restrictions for checking baggage on airlines are perpetually rising,
but pole-vaulters have little recourse.

Shipping companies are inconvenient and ineffective, because the poles must be
sent days early and horror stories abound about chopped, chipped and cracked
poles. So most vaulters endure the inevitable airport process: pack five or more
poles weighing roughly 10 pounds each into bags that look like something a giant
might use to carry his skis, and then approach the check-in counter with a
hopeful smile.

The initial response, vaulters say, is almost always the same.

“I hope you’re not trying to check that,” Mary Saxer, who will be jumping in the
trials here, said in a nasal tone, mimicking the curmudgeonly character she
often encounters.