vaulter vs athlete

vaulter and athlete both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
vaulter	Yes	No	No	No
athlete	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, athlete is a hypernym of vaulter; that is, athlete is a word with a broader meaning than vaulter:

vaulter: an athlete who jumps over a high crossbar with the aid of a long pole
athlete: a person trained to compete in sports

Other hypernyms of vaulter include jock.

vaulter (noun)	athlete (noun)
an athlete who jumps over a high crossbar with the aid of a long pole	a person trained to compete in sports