Melissa Price (born 20 September 1977) is a retired pole vaulter from the United States.
She competed at the 1997 World Indoor Championships and the 1999 World Championships.
Her personal best jump was 4.36 m (14 ft 3+1⁄2 in) metres, achieved in May 1998 in Houston.
In 1995, while at Kingsburg High School in Kingsburg, California, Price set the first NFHS national high school record in the pole vault at 12' 6". [1]
Women were so new to pole vaulting that Price won the 1994 and 1995 National Championships while still in high school. Her 1995 victory set a new American record at 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in), beating another upstart pole vaulter from Idaho State University, Stacy Dragila. Price, then competing for Fresno State University finished second to Dragila the next two years and finished third in 1999. But 2000, the first Olympic year for women's pole vault, the competition had increased. Price would have needed to jump almost her personal best at the Olympic Trials just to get to Sydney, while Dragila raised the world record up to 4.63 m (15 ft 2+1⁄4 in) in that same meet. In Sydney, Dragila won the first gold medal.
Amelia Lyn "Amy" Acuff is a track and field athlete from the United States. A high jump specialist, she competed in the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games as a member of USA Track and Field. Her best Olympic performance came at the 2004 Games, where her jump of 1.99 m earned her fourth place in the final.
Svetlana Yevgenyevna Feofanova is a Russian pole vaulter.
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.
Emma George is a former Australian pole vaulter. She held the world record from 30 November 1995 until 26 May 2000, setting a new record on twelve occasions, before being passed by Stacy Dragila. She was previously a trapeze artist in The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. She was coached by world-renowned coach Mark Stewart, who also led Steve Hooker to Olympic gold.
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.
Yarisley Silva Rodríguez is a Cuban pole vaulter. She won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics – the first Latin American athlete to win an Olympic medal in that event.
The official results of the Women's Pole Vault at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, held on Monday 25 September 2000. There were a total number of 30 participating athletes in this event, which made its Olympic debut. The qualifying round was held on Saturday 23 September 2000, with the qualifying height set at 4.35 metres.
The Women's Pole Vault event at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany was held between 15 August and 17 August 2009. Yelena Isinbayeva was the strong favourite prior to the competition, a position enhanced further by the withdrawal of 2008 Olympic silver medallist Jennifer Stuczynski. Anna Rogowska was the only athlete to beat Isinbayeva in the buildup to the event. Fabiana Murer and Monika Pyrek had both registered strong season's bests but had suffered from indifferent form. European Indoor medallists Yuliya Golubchikova and Silke Spiegelburg rounded out the list of the season's highest jumping athletes.
Eileen-Philippa "Phil" Raschker is a German-born American masters athlete.
Jillian Schwartz is an American-born female former pole vaulter who competed internationally for Israel. She represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics and competed at five consecutive World Championships in Athletics from 2003 to 2011. Her best placing in international competition was fourth at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Holly Bethan Bradshaw is an English track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She used to be the British record holder in the event indoors and outdoors, with clearances of 4.87 metres and 4.90 metres. Bradshaw won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She also won bronze at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, gold at the 2013 European Indoor Championships, bronze at the 2018 European Championships, and silver at the 2019 European Indoor Championships. She also won at the 2018 Athletics World Cup. Coached by Scott Simpson, she has been consistently ranked among the world's best and has been ranked in the world top ten on the Track and Field News merit rankings four times.
Katerina Stefanidi is a Greek pole vaulter. She won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and has also competed at the 2012 London and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Stefanidi was the 2017 World champion and earned bronze at the 2019 World Championships. At the European Athletics Championships, she has won two gold medals and three silvers. Indoors, she is a two-time World Indoor bronze medallist from 2016 and 2018, was the 2017 European Indoor champion and earned silver at the 2015 European Indoor Championships.
Erica Bartolina is an American pole vaulter. She set a personal best of 4.55 m by placing third at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which guaranteed her a qualifying place for the Olympics.
Mary Saxer is an American track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. She holds a personal record of 4.71 m for the event, set in 2014.
The pole vault at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's pole vault has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's event is one of the latest additions to the programme, first being contested at the 2000 Summer Olympics – along with the addition of the hammer throw, this brought the women's field event programme to parity with the men's.
Alysha Eveline Newman is a Canadian track and field athlete who specializes in the pole vault. She is 2024 Summer Olympics bronze medallist and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion, and holds both the Canadian national and Commonwealth Games records in the women's pole vault. Newman represented Canada at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This marked her as the first Canadian woman to medal in pole vaulting at the Olympics. Her vault of 4.85 meters also set a new Canadian national record.
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.
Gabriela Mihalcea is a Romanian former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump and pole vault. She holds the Romanian record of 4.25 m for the pole vault. She was two-time national champion in high jump and a six-time pole vault champion.
Kylie Nicole Hutson is an American track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. She was the national champion in the event in 2011 and represented the United States at the World Championships in Athletics in 2011 and 2013. She won four NCAA collegiate titles while at Indiana State University. Her personal records are 4.75 m indoors and 4.70 m outdoors.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) National High School Record Book