The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. Since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
The 1932 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held during the worldwide Great Depression, with some nations not traveling to Los Angeles; 37 nations competed, compared to the 46 in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, and even then-U.S. President Herbert Hoover did not attend the Games. The organizing committee did not report the financial details of the Games, although contemporary newspapers claimed that the Games had made a profit of US$1,000,000.
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She is on the board of directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport.
Jean Shiley Newhouse was an American high jumper. She was born Jean Shiley in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Havertown, a Philadelphia suburb, where she joined the team at Haverford High School.
Chaunté Lowe is an American athlete who competes in the high jump. A four-time Olympian, she is the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2005 World Championship silver medalist and the 2012 World Indoor gold medalist. She initially finished sixth in the 2008 Olympic high jump final, but was promoted to the bronze medal in 2016 after three competitors were disqualified for doping. She is the American record holder in the women's high jump with an outdoor clearance of 2.05 m in 2010, and holds the indoor record with a clearance of 2.02 m in 2012.
Evelyne Ruth Hall was an American hurdler. She won the AAU title outdoors in 1930 and indoors in 1931, 1933, 1935. At the 1932 Olympics she earned a silver medal in the 80 m, losing in controversial fashion to Mildred Didrikson (1). She placed fourth at the 1936 U.S. Olympic Trials and did not qualify.
Jennifer Lynn Suhr is an American former pole vaulter. She has been an Olympic and World champion, has been ranked #1 in the World, has been the #1 American pole vaulter since 2006, and has won a total of 17 US National Championships. She holds the world indoor pole vault record at 5.03 m. She holds the American women's pole vault record indoors. In 2008, she won the U.S. Olympic trials, setting an American record of 4.92 m and won a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics. She won the gold medal at the London Olympics on August 6, 2012. Track & Field News named her American Female Athlete of the Year for 2008.
Kathlyn Kelley Owens was an American athlete who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. At the women's high jump competition she placed a joint 9th after making 1.50m, but failing to clear 1.55m. Born in Seneca, South Carolina, she was never on the track team at high school, but was coached by school principal Julian Davis, who encouraged her to try out for the Olympics and found track coaches from Clemson University to work with her. At the 1936 United States Women's Olympic Trials she tied for third place, which led to a jump-off against Ida Myers that left Kelly with a bronze medal from the event and a spot on the national Olympic team. It was the last women's jump-off at an American Olympic trial until 2000. Despite having made the team, however, she needed to raise $500 to fund her trip, which she found difficult owing to the Great Depression. Davis, however, called upon South Carolina state senator Harry I. Hughes to convince the legislature, successfully, to pay for her journey. Prior to leaving for Germany she dined with the 1932 champion Jean Shiley and, during the Olympics, she roomed with gold medalists Helen Stephens and Betty Robinson. She planned to train for the 1940 Summer Olympics, and even received a track scholarship to Greenville Women's College, but was forced to leave the school after she was married in December 1938, per college policy. She then took up women's basketball, which she played until the birth of her first daughter in 1942, and eventually settled with a career as a beautician.
Christian Taylor is an American track and field athlete who competes in the triple jump and has a personal record of 18.21 m, which ranks 2nd on the all-time list.
Ana Camila Donatella Pirelli Cubas is a Paraguayan track and field athlete who competes in the heptathlon. She is the Paraguayan record holder in the event with her personal best score of 5733 points. Pirelli holds more than a dozen national records in events as varied as the 100 metres hurdles, shot put and the indoor women's pentathlon. Pirelli was the heptathlon silver medallist at the 2013 South American Championships in Athletics. She won the gold medal at the 2013 Bolivarian Games and the 2014 South American Games, breaking games records at both competitions. Pirelli is tied to Paraguay Marathon Club and competes in Paraguay's national competitions under the Federación Paraguaya de Atletismo.
The high jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's high jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's high jump was one of five events to feature on the first women's athletics programme in 1928, and it was the only jumping event available to women until 1948, when the long jump was permitted.
The long jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's long jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's long jump was introduced over fifty years later in 1948 and was the second Olympic jumping event for women after the high jump, which was added in 1928.
The triple jump at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's triple jump has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's triple jump is one of the more recent additions to the programme, having been first contested in 1996. It became the third Olympic jumping event for women after the high jump and long jump.
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.
Yulimar Rojas Rodríguez is a Venezuelan athlete who holds the world record for women's triple jump, at 15.74 m. She is the current Olympic champion, a three-time World Champion, and three-time World Indoor Champion ; she is nicknamed la reina del triple salto – queen of the triple jump. Since 2014 she has held, and continued to beat, Venezuelan national records in triple jump and long jump. She is a recipient of the Venezuelan Order of José Félix Ribas – First Class.
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
The 1932 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held on July 15 and July 16, 1932 and decided the United States team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The trials for men and women were held separately; men competed in Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California, while women competed in Dyche Stadium in Evanston, Illinois. Both meetings also served as the annual United States outdoor track and field championships. For the first time, only the top three athletes in each event qualified for the Olympics; until 1928, every nation had been allowed four entrants per event.
The 1928 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held between July 3 and July 7, 1928 and decided the United States team for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. For the first time, women's track and field was part of the Olympic program. The trials for men and women were held separately; men competed at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 6 and July 7, while women competed at City Field in Newark, New Jersey on July 4. Three of the men's events were contested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between July 3 and July 5.
The women's high jump event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 5 and 7 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. Even though 32 athletes qualified through the qualification system for the Games, only 31 took part in the competition. This was the 22nd appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since women's athletics was introduced in 1928.
