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.
Javier Sotomayor Sanabria is a Cuban retired track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; his personal best of 2.45 m makes him the only person to have ever cleared eight feet.
Ivan Sergeyevich Ukhov is a Russian high jumper. He won a gold medal at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and is a two-time European Indoor champion. He was also the silver medallist at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and the winner of the high jump at the inaugural 2010 IAAF Diamond League. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won the gold medal, but it was announced on 1 February 2019 that all his results from 16 July 2012 to 31 December 2015 were being disqualified for doping.
Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
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 6 years, 2014–2020. He was the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League in seven consecutive years, from 2010 to 2016.
Mutaz Essa Barshim is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the current Olympic Champion (2020). He is also the current World Champion and second best jumper of all-time with a personal best of 2.43. He won gold at the 2017 World Championships in London and at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. At the Olympics, Barshim won silver at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and shared gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics Tokyo. He was the Asian Indoor and World Junior champion in 2010, and won the high jump gold medals at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships and 2011 Military World Games. He holds the Asian record in high jump. In 2021, his bronze in 2012 Summer Olympics got promoted to silver due to the disqualification of the original gold medalist Ukhov of the event.
The Women's Pole vault event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics took place at the Daegu Stadium on August 28 and 30.
Katerina Stefanidi is a Greek pole vaulter. She won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games with a jump of 4.85 meters and has also competed at the 2012 and the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is the current European Outdoor (2018) and Diamond League (2019) champion, a World Outdoor champion, a European Indoor champion, and a two-time World Indoor bronze medalist. Stefanidi has won a total of ten (10) medals in all five major international athletics championships. She was named the European Women's Athlete of the Year in 2017, and the Greek Female Athlete of the Year in 2017 and 2019. Because of her achievements she is widely regarded as the greatest female athlete in the history of Greek sport.
The men's high jump at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium on 13–15 August.
The men's high jump competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was held at the Olympic Stadium between 14–16 August. Forty-four athletes from 28 nations competed. The event was won by Derek Drouin of Canada, the nation's first victory in the men's high jump since 1932. Drouin was the ninth man to win multiple medals in the high jump, after his 2012 bronze. Mutaz Essa Barshim, who had tied Drouin for bronze in 2012, was the tenth multiple medalist in the event. Barshim's silver was Qatar's fifth Olympic medal in any event, and the first better than bronze. Bohdan Bondarenko took bronze, Ukraine's first medal in the men's high jump.
The men's pole vault competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium between 13–15 August. Thirty-one athletes from 16 nations competed. Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil won the gold medal, the nation's first medal in the men's pole vault. Renaud Lavillenie of France was unable to successfully defend his 2012 gold, but became the seventh man to win two medals with silver this time. Sam Kendricks's bronze returned the United States to the podium after a one-Games absence.
The women's pole vault competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium between 16–19 August.
Demi Payne is an American track and field athlete whose specialty is pole vaulting. She is the daughter of American pole vaulter Bill Payne. Payne competed collegiately for Stephen F. Austin State University. She competed in the pole vault event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China. Demi Payne won gold medal on March 1, 2015 2015 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships Pole Vault with a height of 4.55 m. She won a bronze medal June 28, 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Pole Vault with a height of 4.60 m
Eliza McCartney is a New Zealand track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault and won the bronze medal in this event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the current New Zealand and Oceania record holder at 4.94 m, and is the outdoor world junior record holder at 4.64 m. She also won the silver medal at the Summer Universiade in 2015. In 2018, she placed second at the Commonwealth Games.
The men's pole vault at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 17, 2016.
The women's pole vault at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 17, 2016. Jennifer Suhr of the United States won gold.
The women's pole vault at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4 and 6 August.
The women's pole vault event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 2 and 5 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 31 athletes from 19 nations competed. In her first Olympics, 30-year-old American Katie Nageotte won the gold medal with a clearance of 4.90 metres. The silver medal went to Russian world champion Anzhelika Sidorova and the bronze to Holly Bradshaw of Great Britain.
The women's pole vault competition of the athletics events at the 2019 Pan American Games took place on 8 August at the 2019 Pan American Games Athletics Stadium. The defending Pan American Games champion was Yarisley Silva from Cuba, who again won the gold medal. It marked her third successive championship and fourth straight medal.
The women's pole vault at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, from 27 to 29 September 2019.
