The men's pole vault at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 17, 2016. The men's and women's pole vault competition were the only events on the opening day. They were conducted simultaneously with two parallel runways down the center of the arena. The runways were at floor level, unlike the more common raised runways which is a more dangerous situation; one which resulted in the injury to Renaud Lavillenie minutes after setting the world record two years earlier. It was that injury that prevented Lavillenie from defending his world indoor title at the previous championship, but he was back this year with the world leading jump going into the competition.