Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long flexible pole as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
Robert Seagren is a retired American pole vaulter, the 1968 Olympic champion.
Robert Eugene Richards is an American athlete who made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956.
Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka was twice named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News, and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.
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 the appearance of an independent report about an extensive state-sponsored doping program 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.
Stacy Renée Dragila is an American former pole vaulter.
Toby "Crash" Stevenson is an Olympic class pole vaulter from the United States. He is known for being the only pole vaulter in the international elite to wear a helmet during jumps.
Giuseppe Gibilisco is an Italian bobsledder and former pole vaulter, who won the 2003 World Championships with a personal best of 5.90 m. He followed this with a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics.
Lawrence Johnson is an American pole vaulter, born in Norfolk, Virginia. He earned the nickname "LoJo" at the University of Tennessee where he won four NCAA titles in the pole vault. LoJo began pole vaulting in 1989 and since has/holds records on all stages and led the charge to return the US to the international medal podium with two Olympic appearances, including a silver medal performance in 2000 Olympic games Sydney.
Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam was an American pole vaulter who held the world record between 1940 and 1957. He missed the Olympics due to World War II, and retired from senior competitions in 1944, though he continued to vault into his sixties. He was inducted into the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame in 1974.
Michael Scott "Mike" Tully is an American pole vaulter. He represented the United States twice in the Olympics, earning a silver in 1984, and held the American pole vault record from 1984 to 1985.
Donald George Bragg was an American athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault and won a gold medal in that event at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Derek Miles is an American pole vaulter, from Tea, South Dakota. A former pole vaulter for The University of South Dakota Track and Field team, Miles is currently an assistant coach for the Coyotes. In 2004, he placed seventh in the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Miles was originally at fourth place in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, but Ukrainian Denys Yurchenko who originally finished third, was disqualified in November 2016 due to use of dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. On 17 April 2017, Derek Miles received the Olympic bronze medal.
Steven "Steve" Leslie Hooker OAM is an Australian former pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist. His personal best, achieved in 2008, is 6.06 m making him the third-highest pole vaulter in history, behind Sergey Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie.
Fabiana de Almeida Murer is a retired Brazilian pole vaulter. She holds the South American record in the event with an indoor best of 4.82 m and an outdoor best of 4.87 m, making her the fourth highest vaulter ever at the time, now the eighth. She won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and also won at the 2007 Pan American Games. Murer represented Brazil at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. She is a four-time South American Champion with wins in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Murer was coached by both the Ukrainian Vitaly Petrov, who managed the world record holders Sergei Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva, and her husband, Élson Miranda de Souza, a former vaulter himself.
Jennifer "Jenn" Suhr is an American 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.
Renaud Lavillenie is a French pole vaulter. He is the current world record holder, with a height of 6.16 m set indoors on 15 February 2014.
Albert Richmond "Boo" Morcom was an American track and field athlete.
Sam Kendricks is an American pole vaulter. He is a three-time indoor and six-time outdoor national champion (2014–2019). 2016 Olympics bronze medalist, and the 2017 World Champion. In 2019 Kendricks set the American pole vault record at 6.06 m The 6.06 ties him with Steve Hooker for #3 of all time. He later won the gold medal at the World Championships in Doha.
Sandi Morris is an American pole vault record holder. She won the silver medal in the pole vault event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also won silver at the pole vault event at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. In 2018 she won gold at the World Indoor Championships. Morris has a personal best vault of 4.95 m indoor, set on March 12, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. She matched this height at the 2018 World Indoor Champships when setting a new championship record. July 23, 2016, Morris cleared 4.93 m at American Track League in Houston at Rice University breaking Jennifer Suhr's American outdoor record in the pole vault. Morris cleared 5.00 m at 2016 IAAF Diamond League Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 9, 2016 to set the U.S. women's outdoor pole vault record.
