Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Mycenaean Greeks, Minoan Greeks and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the World Indoor Games in 1985 in Paris, France and were subsequently renamed to IAAF World Indoor Championships in 1987. The current name was adapted with the name change of the sports governing body in 2019.
Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva is a Russian former pole vaulter. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a three-time World Champion, the current world record holder in the event, and is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time. Isinbayeva was banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics after revelations of an extensive state-sponsored doping programme in Russia, thus dashing her hopes of a grand retirement winning the Olympic gold medal. She retired from athletics in August 2016 after being elected to serve an 8-year term on the IOC's Athletes' Commission.
The first world record in the men's pole vault was recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1912.
Mauro Barella is a retired Italian pole vaulter.
Yang Yansheng is a Chinese pole vaulter. He is the former Chinese record holder for the event both indoors and outdoors with bests of 5.80 and 5.75 metres respectively.
The 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was the 14th edition of the global-level indoor track and field competition and was held between March 9–11, 2012 at the Ataköy Athletics Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. It was the first of four IAAF World Athletics Series events in 2012, which includes the World Race Walking Cup, the World Junior Championships and the World Half Marathon Championships.
Renaud Lavillenie is a French pole vaulter. Lavillenie won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London and the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In addition to his Olympic success, he has won three World Indoor Championships gold medals (record), three European Championships gold medals and four European Indoor Championships gold medals. He has also won one silver medal and four bronze medals at the World Championships. As of 25 August 2016, he holds the French national records for the highest pole vault clearance both outdoors and indoors. The 6.16 was the absolute world record for the pole vault for over six years, 2014–2020. He was the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League in seven consecutive years, from 2010 to 2016.
Maurilio Mariani is a retired Italian pole vaulter.
Malte Mohr is a German pole vaulter. At the 2009 World Athletics Championships, Mohr finished in 14th place with a vault of 5.50 metres. At the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, Mohr was runner-up behind Steve Hooker with a vault of 5.70 metres.
Kevin Mayer is a French athlete specialising in decathlon and indoor heptathlon. He is two-time world champion, two-time Olympic silver medalist and the world record holder in the decathlon since 2018. He is also a world and three-time European champion in heptathlon.
Shawnacy Campbell Barber was a Canadian track and field athlete specializing in the pole vault.
Luke Cutts is a British pole vaulter. His personal best of 5.83 m set in 2014 is the British indoor record for the event. His outdoor best of 5.70 m puts him third on the all-time British lists.
Piotr Lisek is a Polish athlete specialising in the pole vault. He won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships and the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships. He is the first Polish vaulter to jump over 6 meters.
Sam Kendricks is an American pole vaulter. He is a three-time indoor and six-time outdoor national champion (2014–2019), the 2016 Olympics bronze medalist, and the 2017 and 2019 World Champion. In 2019, Kendricks set the American pole vault record at 6.06 m, tying him with Steve Hooker for fourth all time. He later won the gold medal at the World Championships in Doha.
Armand GustavDuplantis is a Swedish-American pole vaulter, the current world outdoor and indoor record holder, the current Olympic and two time World outdoor and two-time indoor champion, the current European champion, and the current Diamond League champion. He won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. Duplantis is a three-time European champion from 2018, when he set current world under-20 record, and from 2022 and 2024, he is 2022 World Indoor Championship and 2021 European Indoor Championship gold medallist.
The men's heptathlon at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 18 and 19, 2016.
Alexis "Lexi" Jacobus is an American pole vaulter. Lexi Jacobus has an identical twin Tori Weeks Hoggard, who is also a pole vaulter. Lexi qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics by finishing third at the Olympic trials. Jacobus is the first woman to win 4 NCAA Division 1 pole Vault titles.
Sondre Guttormsen is a Norwegian athlete specialising in the pole vault. He won the gold medal at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. Guttormsen earned bronze at the 2021 European Under-23 Championships.
The Czechoslovak Indoor Athletics Championships was an annual indoor track and field competition organised by the Czechoslovak Athletics Federation, which served as the national championship for the sport in Czechoslovakia. Held over two days in February during the Czechoslovak winter, it was added to the national calendar in 1969 following the creation of a suitable indoor athletics venue in Jablonec nad Nisou. A Czech-only championship was held at the venue a year earlier.
