Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Matthew Ludwig | ||||||||||||||
Born | July 5, 1996 | ||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||
Country | United States | ||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
Event | Pole vault | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Matthew "Matt" Ludwig (born July 5, 1996) is an American pole vaulter. [1]
Ludwig is a native of Ohio. He attended the University of Missouri before transferring to the University of Akron where he graduated in 2019 with a degree in biomedical engineering. [2]
Ludwig was originally an alternate on the three-man U.S. Olympic pole vault team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but subsequently competed as an Olympian after bronze medalist and reigning world champion Sam Kendricks tested positive for COVID-19 and was declared out of the Tokyo Games. [2] [3]
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.
Stacy Renée Mikaelson known as Stacy Renée Dragila is a former American pole vaulter. She is an Olympic gold medalist and a multiple-time world champion.
Jeff Hartwig is an American pole vaulter.
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.
John Thomas Pennel was an American pole vaulter, and four-time world record holder.
Jack Bryan Whitt is an American pole vaulter. His personal best jump indoors is 5.72 m, achieved in June 2012 in Tulsa, OK. His best outdoor jump of 5.70 m came in May 2013 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He represented the United States at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow.
Stephen Norwood Smith was an American Olympic pole vaulter. He was the first person to clear the 18 foot barrier indoors. He was the number one ranked pole vaulter in the world in 1973.
Sally Peake is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She has a personal best of 4.40 m for the event, which is a Welsh record. She was the silver medallist in the pole vault at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Alysha Eveline Newman is a Canadian track and field athlete who specializes in the pole vault. She competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. Newman was the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion in the women's pole vault, where she set a new Games record of 4.75 metres (15.6 ft).
Mark Hollis is an American track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. His personal best for the event is 5.83 m, set in 2014. He finished third at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup.
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.
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 Gustav "Mondo" Duplantis is a Swedish-American pole vaulter, the current world outdoor and indoor record holder, the current Olympic and two time World outdoor and one-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 two-time European champion from 2018, when he set current world under-20 record, and from 2022. Indoors, he is 2022 World Indoor Championship and 2021 European Indoor Championship gold medallist.
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.
Ernest John "EJ" Uy Obiena is a Filipino Olympian pole vaulter, currently ranked second in the world in men's pole vault (2023), per the World Athletics Organization.
Kathryn Elizabeth Moon is an American professional athlete, specializing in pole vaulting. She won gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2022 World Athletics Championships and 2023 World Athletics Championships, and a silver at the 2022 World Indoor Championships. Moon was also 2019 Pan American Games silver medalist.
Christopher Nilsen is an American athlete specialising in pole vault and high jump. He won the silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the pole vault event with a jump of 5.97 m.
The men's pole vault event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 31 July and 3 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 29 athletes from 18 nations competed. Armand Duplantis of Sweden won gold, with Christopher Nilsen of the United States earning silver and Thiago Braz of Brazil taking bronze. It was Sweden's first victory in the event and first medal of any color in the men's pole vault since 1952. Braz, who had won in 2016, became the ninth man to earn multiple medals in the pole vault.
KC Lightfoot, is an American pole vaulter. He holds the American record with a clearance of 6.07 m at the Music City Track Carnival in Nashville on June 2, 2023. This broke the record of 6.06 set by Sam Kendricks, the 2017 and 2019 World champion, in 2019. Lightfoot now ranks fourth on the world all-time list behind Swede Mondo Duplantis, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie and Ukrainian Sergey Bubka. He placed fourth at the 2020 Summer Olympics.