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 successively improved their technique until developing the universally preferred Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) is the world record holder with a jump of 2.45m (8ft 1⁄4in) set in 1993– the longest-standing record in the history of the men's high jump. Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine) is the women's world record holder with a jump of 2.10m (6ft 10+1⁄2in) set in 2024.
Rules
Yelena Slesarenko hitting the bar while using the Fosbury Flop technique
The rules set for the high jump by World Athletics (previously named the IAAF[1]) are Technical Rules TR26 and TR27[2] (previously Rules 181 and 182[1]). Jumpers must take off from one foot. A jump is considered a failure if the jumper dislodges the bar or touches the ground or any object behind the bar before clearance.
Competitors may begin jumping at any height announced by the chief judge, or may pass at their own discretion. Most competitions state that three consecutive missed jumps, at any height or combination of heights, will eliminate the jumper from contention. The victory goes to the jumper who clears the greatest height during the final.
Tie breaking
If two or more jumpers tie for any place, the tie-breakers are: 1) the fewest misses at the height at which the tie occurred; and 2) the fewest misses throughout the competition. If the event remains tied for first place (or a limited-advancement position to a subsequent meet), the jumpers have a jump-off, beginning at the next height above their highest success. Jumpers have one attempt at each height. If only one succeeds, he or she wins; if more than one does, these try with the bar raised; if none does, all try with the bar lowered. This process was followed at the 2015 World Championship men's event and at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Example:
Example jump-off
Competitor
Main competition
Jump-off
Place
1.75m
1.80m
1.84m
1.88m
1.91m
1.94m
1.97m
1.91m
1.89m
1.91m
A
o
xo
o
xo
x
–
xx
x
o
x
2
B
–
xo
–
xo
–
–
xxx
x
o
o
1
C
–
o
xo
xo
–
xxx
x
x
3
D
–
xo
xo
xo
xxx
4
In the example jump-off, the final cleared height is 1.88m, at which A B C and D each have one failure. D has two failures at lower heights compared to one each for the other three, who proceed to a jump-off at the next height above the final cleared height. C is eliminated in the second round of the jump-off 1.89m, then B wins in the third round.
A 2009 rule-change makes the jump-off optional, so that first place can be shared by agreement among tied athletes.[1] This rule led to shared gold in the 2020 Olympic men's event held in 2021.
The first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century. Early jumpers used either an elaborate straight-on approach or a scissors technique. In later years, the bar was approached diagonally, and the jumper threw first the inside leg and then the other over the bar in a scissoring motion.
Around the turn of the 20th century, techniques began to change, beginning with the Irish-American Michael Sweeney'sEastern cut-off as a variation of the scissors technique. By taking off as in the scissors method, extending his spine and flattening out over the bar, Sweeney raised the world record to 1.97m (6ft 5+1⁄2in) in 1895. Even in 1948, John Winter of Australia won the gold medal of the 1948 London Olympics with this style. Besides, one of the most successful female high jumpers, Iolanda Balaș of Romania, used this style to dominate women's high jump for about 10 years until her retirement in 1967.
Another American, George Horine, developed an even more efficient technique, the Western roll. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Horine increased the world standard to 2.01m (6ft 7in) in 1912. His technique was predominant through the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in which the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03m (6ft 7+3⁄4in).
American and Soviet jumpers were the most successful for the next four decades, and they pioneered the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll but rotated their torso, belly-down, around the bar, obtaining the most efficient and highest clearance up to that time. Straddle jumper Charles Dumas was the first to clear 7ft (2.13m), in 1956. American John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23m (7ft 3+3⁄4in) in 1960. Valeriy Brumel of the Soviet Union took over the event for the next four years, radically speeding up his approach run. He took the record up to 2.28m (7ft 5+3⁄4in) and won the gold medal of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, before a motorcycle accident ended his career in 1965.
Gold medal winner Ethel Catherwood of Canada scissors over the bar at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Her winning result was 1.59m (5ft 2+1⁄2in).Platt Adams during the standing high jump competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics
American coaches, including two-time NCAA champion Frank Costello of the University of Maryland, flocked to Russia to learn from Brumel and his coaches like Vladimir Dyachkov. However, it would be a solitary innovator at Oregon State University, Dick Fosbury, who would bring the high jump into the next century.
Taking advantage of the raised, softer, artificially-cushioned landing areas that were in use by then, Fosbury added a new twist to the outmoded Eastern cut-off. He directed himself over the bar head and shoulders first, going over on his back and landing in a fashion that would likely have resulted in serious injury in the old ground-level landing pits, which were usually filled with sawdust or sand mixtures. Around the same time, Debbie Brill independently came up with the same technique, which she called the 'Brill Bend'.[3]
Since Fosbury used his new style, called the Fosbury flop, to win the gold medal of the 1968 Mexico Olympics, its use spread quickly, and soon "floppers" were dominating international high jump competitions. The first flopper setting a world record was the American Dwight Stones, who cleared 2.30m (7ft 6+1⁄2in) in 1973. In the female side, the 16-year-old flopper Ulrike Meyfarth from West Germany won the gold medal of the 1972 Munich Olympics at 1.92m (6ft 3+1⁄2in), which tied the women's world record at that time (held by the Austrian straddler Ilona Gusenbauer a year before). However, it was not until 1978 when a flopper, Sara Simeoni of Italy, broke the women's world record.
Successful high jumpers following Fosbury's lead also included the rival of Dwight Stones, 1.73 metres (5ft 8in)-tall Franklin Jacobs of Paterson, New Jersey, who cleared 2.32m (7ft 7+1⁄4in), 0.59 metres (1ft 11in) over his head (a feat equalled 27 years later by Stefan Holm of Sweden); Chinese record-setters Ni-chi Chin and Zhu Jianhua; Germans Gerd Wessig and Dietmar Mögenburg; Swedish Olympic medalist and former world record holder Patrik Sjöberg; female jumpers Ulrike Meyfarth of West Germany and Sara Simeoni of Italy.
In spite of this, the straddle technique did not disappear at once. In 1977, the 18-year-old Soviet straddler Vladimir Yashchenko set a new world record 2.33m (7ft 7+1⁄2in). In 1978, he raised the record to 2.34m (7ft 8in), and 2.35m (7ft 8+1⁄2in) indoor, just before a knee injury effectively ended his career when he was only 20 years old. In the female side, the straddler Rosemarie Ackermann of East Germany, who was the first female jumper ever to clear 2m (6ft 6+1⁄2in), raised the world record from 1.95m (6ft 4+3⁄4in) to 2.00m (6ft 6+1⁄2in) during 1974 to 1977. In fact, from 2 June 1977 to 3 August 1978, almost 10 years after Fosbury's success, the men's and women's world records were still held by straddle jumpers Yashchenko and Ackermann respectively. However, they were the last world record holders using the straddle technique. Ackermann also won the gold medal of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, which was the last time for a straddle jumper (male or female) to win an Olympic medal.
In 1980, the Polish flopper, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Jacek Wszoła, broke Yashchenko's world record at 2.35m (7ft 8+1⁄2in). Two years before, the female Italian flopper Sara Simeoni, the long-term rival of Ackermann, broke Ackermann's world record at 2.01m (6ft 7in) and became the first female flopper to break the women's world record. She also won the gold medal of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where Ackermann placed fourth. Since then, the flop style has been completely dominant. All other techniques were almost extinct in serious high jump competitions after late 1980s.
Technical aspects
Technique and form have evolved greatly over the history of high jump. The Fosbury Flop is considered the most efficient way for competitors to propel themselves over the bar.
Approach
Spanish jumper Ruth Beitia approaching the bar from an angle
For a Fosbury Flop, depending on the athlete's jump foot, they start on the right or left of the high jump mat, placing their jump foot farthest away from the mat. They take an eight- to ten-step approach, with the first three to five steps being in a straight line and the last five being on a curve. Athletes generally mark their approach in order to find as much consistency as possible.
The approach run can be more important than the takeoff. If a high jumper runs with bad timing or without enough aggression, clearing the bar becomes more of a challenge. The approach requires a certain shape or curve, the right amount of speed, and the correct number of strides. The approach angle is also critical for optimal height.
The straight run builds the momentum and sets the tone for a jump. The athlete starts by pushing off their takeoff foot with slow, powerful steps, then begins to accelerate. They should be running upright by the end of the straight portion.
The athlete's takeoff foot will be landing on the first step of the curve, and they will continue to accelerate, focusing their body towards the opposite back corner of the high jump mat. While staying erect and leaning away from the mat, the athlete takes their final two steps flat-footed, rolling from the heel to the toe.
Most great straddle jumpers run at angles of about 30 to 40 degrees. The length of the run is determined by the speed of the approach. A slower run requires about eight strides, but a faster high jumper might need about 13 strides. Greater speed allows a greater part of the body's forward momentum to be converted upward.[4]
The J approach favored by Fosbury floppers allows for speed, the ability to turn in the air (centripetal force), and a good takeoff position, which helps turn horizontal momentum into vertical momentum. The approach should be a hard, controlled stride so that the athlete does not fall from running at an angle. Athletes should lean into the curve from their ankles, not their hips. This allows their hips to rotate during takeoff, which in turn allows their center of gravity to pass under the bar.[5]
Takeoff
The takeoff can be double-arm or single-arm. In both cases, the plant foot should be the foot farthest from the bar, angled towards the opposite back corner of the mat, as they drive up the knee on their non-takeoff leg. This is accompanied by a one- or two-arm swing while driving the knee.
Unlike the straddle technique, where the takeoff foot is "planted" in the same spot regardless of the height of the bar, flop-style jumpers must adjust their approach run as the bar is raised so that their takeoff spot is slightly farther out from the bar. Jumpers attempting to reach record heights commonly fail when most of their energy is directed into the vertical effort and they knock the bar off the standards with the backs of their legs as they stall.
An effective approach shape can be derived from physics. For example, the rate of backward spin required as the jumper crosses the bar in order to facilitate shoulder clearance on the way up and foot clearance on the way down can be determined by computer simulation. This rotation rate can be back-calculated to determine the required angle of lean away from the bar at the moment of planting, based on how long the jumper is on the takeoff foot. This information, together with the jumper's speed, can be used to calculate the radius of the curved part of the approach. One can also work in the opposite direction by assuming a certain approach radius and determining the resulting backward rotation.
Drills can be practiced to solidify the approach. One drill is to run in a straight line and then run two to three circles spiraling into one another. Another is to run or skip a circle of any size two to three times in a row.[6] It is important to leap upwards without first leaning into the bar, allowing the momentum of the J approach to carry the body across the bar.
Flight
The knee on the athlete's non-takeoff leg naturally turns their body, placing them in the air with their back to the bar. The athlete then drives their shoulders towards the back of their feet, arching their body over the bar. They can look over their shoulder to judge when to kick both feet over their head, causing their body to clear the bar and land on the mat.[7]
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". This event has a history in the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympic event for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948.
The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the track and performs a hop, a bound and then a jump into the sand pit. The triple jump was inspired by accounts of lengthy jumps at the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympics event since the Games' inception in 1896.
Richard Douglas Fosbury was an American high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. He won a gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics, revolutionizing the high jump event with a "back-first" technique now known as the Fosbury flop. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backward over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques. Debbie Brill was developing her similar "Brill Bend" around the same time. This approach has seen nearly universal adoption since Fosbury's performance in Mexico. Though he never returned to the Olympics, Fosbury continued to be involved in athletics after retirement and served on the executive board of the World Olympians Association.
The Fosbury flop is a jumping style used in the track and field sport of high jump. It was popularized and perfected by American athlete Dick Fosbury, whose gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City brought it to the world's attention. The flop became the dominant style of the event; before Fosbury, most elite jumpers used the straddle technique, Western roll, Eastern cut-off, or scissors jump to clear the bar. Though the backwards flop technique had been known for years before Fosbury, landing surfaces had been sandpits or low piles of matting and high jumpers had to land on their feet or at least land carefully to prevent injury. With the advent of deep foam matting, high jumpers were able to be more adventurous in their landing styles and hence more experimental with jumping styles.
Javier Sotomayor Sanabria is a Cuban former 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 ever to have cleared eight feet. He cleared eight feet twice, the first time with 2.44m in 1989 in San Juan.
Debbie Arden Brill, is a Canadian high jump athlete who at the age of 16 became the first North American woman to clear 6 feet. Her reverse jumping style—which is now almost exclusively the technique of elite high jumpers—was called the Brill Bend and was developed by her when she was a child, around the same time as Dick Fosbury was developing the similar Fosbury Flop in the US. Brill won gold in the high jump at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, and at the Pan American Games in 1971. She finished 8th in the 1972 Summer Olympics, then quit the sport in the wake of the Munich massacre, returning three years later. She won gold at the IAAF World Cup in 1979 and at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. She has held the Canadian high jump record since 1969, and set the current record of 1.99 metres in 1982, a few months after giving birth to her first child.
The first world record in the men's high jump was recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 1912.
The straddle technique was the dominant style in the high jump before the development of the Fosbury Flop. It is a successor of the Western roll, for which it is sometimes confused.
The Western roll was a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University. This technique was succeeded by the straddle.
The eastern cut-off is a variant of the "scissors" high jump style involving a layout. This enables the jumper to clear a higher bar than with the traditional scissors style while still landing on the feet. The technique is generally credited to Michael Sweeney of the New York Athletic Club, who used it in 1895 to set a world record of 6 ft 5 5/8 inches . The style came to be called "eastern" because of its origin on the US east coast, after the invention of the rival "western roll" style by George Horine on the west coast (Stanford). Horine was in fact the first to improve on Sweeney's record, when he cleared 6 ft 7 inches in 1912.
The scissors is a style used in the athletics event of high jump.
Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
Mutaz Essa Barsham is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the former Olympic Champion. He is also the former World Champion and second highest jumper of all-time with a personal best of 2.43. He won gold at the 2017 World Championships in London, at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, as well as the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. At the Olympics, Barsham originally won the full set of medals with bronze at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, silver at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, and shared gold at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2021, his bronze in the London 2012 Summer Olympics was promoted to silver in a three-way tie for second due to disqualification of the original gold medalist, leaving him with two silvers and a gold. His bronze at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics yet again completed his full set of Olympic medals. 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.
The men's high jump field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 9 and 10 at the Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany. Forty athletes from 26 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Jüri Tarmak of the Soviet Union; he was the last man to win an Olympic gold medal using the straddle technique. The more popular and more widely used Fosbury Flop technique was the most common technique used.
These are the official results of the Women's high jump event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The competition was held on 3 and 4 of September. Austrian Ilona Gusenbauer was the favorite after her 1971 European Athletics Championships victory. There were 40 jumpers and 23 qualified for the final making it a long day for the jumpers involved with such a big field. This competition still used a mixture of the straddle technique and the newer Fosbury Flop technique. Meyfarth at the age of 16 years, 123 days, was and still is the youngest winner of an individual medal in athletics.
The men's high jump was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics program in Mexico City. Thirty-nine athletes from 25 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. Dick Fosbury won by using a backward jumping style that was called the Fosbury Flop. This was the unveiling of the new style on the world stage. The style completely revolutionized the sport. By the mid 1970s and ever since, virtually all of the top competitors were using the new style.
Reynaldo Brown is an American track and field athlete, known for the high jump. He competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics at the beginning of his senior year in high school, finishing fifth. His participation in that transitional event had him witnessing teammate Dick Fosbury winning the gold medal using the Fosbury Flop, leaving Brown as one of the last successful jumpers to use the straddle technique.
Noor Azhar Abdul Hamid is a former Singaporean high jumper. His national record of 2.12 m set during the 1973 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games stood for 22 years until it was broken by Wong Yew Tong in 1995, and won him the 1974 Singapore National Olympic Council Sportsman of the Year award. In 1999, Noor Azhar was ranked 25th in a list of Singapore's 50 Greatest Athletes of the Century by The Straits Times.
Yaroslava Oleksiivna Mahuchikh is a Ukrainian high jumper and women's high jump world record holder. She won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, 2023 World Championships and 2022 World Indoor Championships. Mahuchikh is also the 2020 Summer Olympics bronze medalist, 2019 and 2022 World Championships silver medalist and 2024 World Indoor Championships silver medalist. She is a three-times Diamond League title holder.
The women's high jump at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 2 and 4 August 2024. This was the 23rd time that the event was contested at the Summer Olympics.
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Javier Sotomayor 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) (1993)
Yaroslava Mahuchikh 2.10 m (6 ft 10+1⁄2 in) (2024)
Charles Austin 2.39 m (7 ft 10 in) (1996)
Yelena Slesarenko 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) (2004)
Stefka Kostadinova 2.09 m (6 ft 10+1⁄4 in) (1987)
