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| Birth name | Stephen Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 29 March 1973 Liverpool, Lancashire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | High jump | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Updated on 30 December 2014. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Steve Smith [1] (born 29 March 1973) is a retired British high jumper. Smith's indoor mark of 2.38 metres and his outdoor mark of 2.37 metres are British records in the high jump (7 feet 9 and three-quarter inches, and 7 feet 9 and one-half inches, respectively).
Smith was born in Liverpool and trained there throughout his career under coach Mike Holmes. Standing 1.85 meters tall (6 ft. 1 inch), Smith is considered "small" in comparison to most world-class high jumpers. He jumps off his left leg. He first emerged as a talented jumper in 1990, when he cleared 2.25 (7 ft 4 inches) at a British national meet in Gateshead. In 1991, he improved to 2.29, and then had his "breakout" year in 1992, improving his best by an astonishing 8 centimetres. He qualified for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and reached the finals, finishing in 12th place with a disappointing height of only 2.24. One month after those Olympics, he competed at the 1992 World Junior Championships, where he won, and equalled the junior world record of 2.37 metres (outdoors), which Dragutin Topić had achieved in 1990. Smith equalled this result twice more (once indoors and once outdoors.) He established his personal best of 2.38, set indoors at Wuppertal, Germany, on 4 February 1994, which still stands as the British record.
He was a bronze medalist at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the first British man to win a medal in the high jump since Con Leahy in 1908. He did it with just 5 jumps: eight men cleared 2.32, but only three (Smith, Poland's Artur Partyka and American Charles Austin) successfully jumped 2.35. With their medals secured, all 3 missed their initial attempts at 2.37, Partyka then cleared on his second attempt, and Smith and Austin passed for final attempts at 2.39 which only Charles Austin cleared (for a new Olympic record).
A four-time national champion for Great Britain (AAA Championships) in the men's high jump event, Smith retired after rupturing his Achilles tendon in 1999 (a year in which he was still jumping 2.36 outdoors). During his career, Smith leaped 2.36 (7 ft 9 inches) or better at nine different competitions. While his performance at the 1996 Olympics stands as the capstone, his best year was 1993 when he placed third at both the IAAF World Championships Indoors (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 14 March) and Outdoors (Stuttgart, Germany, on 22 August), jumping 2.37 at both meets.
Shortly after he retired from competition, he opened a restaurant in his hometown of Liverpool in 2000 and in 2004 founded Raise the Bar, a corporate training and apprenticeship business that works with global brands.
Smith was educated at the all-boys' De La Salle School in Liverpool.
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing  Great Britain and  England | |||||
| 1990 | World Junior Championships | Plovdiv, Bulgaria | 15th (q) | 2.10 m | |
| 1992 | World Junior Championships | Seoul, South Korea | 1st | 2.37 m WJR | |
| 1993 | World Indoor Championships | Toronto, Canada | 3rd | 2.37 m PB | |
| World Championships | Stuttgart, Germany | 3rd | 2.37 m =PB | ||
| 1994 | European Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 2nd | 2.33 m | |
| Commonwealth Games | Victoria, Canada | 2nd | 2.32 m | ||
| 1995 | World Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 4th | 2.35 m | |
| 1996 | Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States | 3rd | 2.35 m | |
| 1997 | World Indoor Championships | Paris, France | 6th | 2.25 m | |
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.
Matthew Eliot Hemingway is a retired American track and field athlete. He won a silver medal in the high jump at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens by clearing a height of 2.34 meters. Reflecting on this he said: "I'm ecstatic about winning the silver. You don't lose gold medals. People win them. I won a silver and Stefan Holm won a gold." His personal best jump came at the 2000 US Indoor Championship where he leaped 2.38 m. He jumped off of his left leg.
Andrey Alexandrovich Silnov is a Russian high jumper and the 2008 Olympic champion. Born in Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, he is 1.98 m and weighs 83 kg (183 lbs).
Ivan Sergeyevich Ukhov is a Russian high jumper. He won a gold medal at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and is a two-time European Indoor champion. He was also the silver medallist at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and the winner of the high jump at the inaugural 2010 IAAF Diamond League. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won the gold medal, but it was later stripped for a doping violation.
Carlo Thränhardt is a retired German high jumper. He excelled at indoor competitions, setting the world indoor record on three occasions between 1984 and 1988. His best mark of 2.42 metres ranks him second on the indoor all-time list one-centimetre behind world record holder Javier Sotomayor of Cuba. The only superior outdoor performances are Sotomayor's world record of 2.45 m, and Mutaz Essa Barshim's clearance of 2.43 m in 2014. Like all modern high jumpers, Thränhardt used the Fosbury Flop style, but of the 16 men in history to have cleared 2.40 m or higher, he was only the second to do so jumping off his right leg. The first was Igor Paklin. At the European Indoor Championships, he won a gold medal in 1983 and four silver medals. Outdoors, his best championship result was winning a bronze medal at the 1986 European Championships. He also reached the Olympic finals in 1984 and 1988.
The men's high jump was an event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 38 competitors from 28 nations, with one non-starter. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Charles Austin of the United States, the nation's first victory in the men's high jump since 1968 and 13th overall. Artur Partyka of Poland became the seventh man to win two medals in the event, following his 1992 bronze with silver in these Games. Steve Smith's bronze was Great Britain's first medal in the men's high jump since 1908.
The men's high jump was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were 43 participating athletes from 27 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The qualification mark was set at 2.29 metres. The event was won by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba, the nation's first victory in the men's high jump. Patrik Sjöberg of Sweden earned silver, becoming the first man to win a third medal in the event, though he never won gold. Sweden was only the third country to have three consecutive podium appearances. A three-way tie for third could not be resolved by countback, so bronze medals were awarded to Tim Forsyth, Artur Partyka, and Hollis Conway.
Jesse Daniel Williams is an American high jumper and the 2011 World Champion. He was ranked the #2 jumper in the world, outdoors, in 2010 and #1 in the world in 2011. He has jumped 53 centimeters above his height, a differential which places him among the top 20 jumpers of all time.
The men's high jump at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 17–19 August at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Forty athletes from 28 nations competed. The event was won by Andrey Silnov of Russia, the nation's second victory in the men's high jump. Germaine Mason's silver was Great Britain's first medal in the event since 1996, and matched the nation's best-ever result. Silnov's countryman Yaroslav Rybakov won bronze, marking the first time since 1988 that a nation had two medalists in the men's high jump in the same Games. Reigning world champion Donald Thomas, who cleared 2.32 metres at Osaka 2007, finished in twenty-first place and failed to advance into the final round. For the first time, no American made the final.
Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
The men's high jump event at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, 22 September and Sunday, 24 September. Thirty-five athletes from 24 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The high jump has been ever present since the beginning of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. The event was won by Sergey Klyugin of Russia, the nation's first medal and victory in the men's high jump in the nation's first appearance after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Javier Sotomayor of Cuba was the eighth man to win a second medal in the event ; he joined Valeriy Brumel and Jacek Wszoła as the most successful Olympic high jumpers in history with a gold and a silver—despite missing the 1984 and 1988 Games due to boycott and being hampered by injury in 1996. Abderrahmane Hammad's bronze was Algeria's first medal in the men's high jump.
Mutaz Essa Barshim is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the current Olympic Champion (2020). He is also the current 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 and at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. At the Olympics, Barshim 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. 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 Moravia High Jump Tour is an elite-level, invitation-only, indoor athletics competition for the world's best high jumpers, both men and women. It is a high jump-only competition held in the eastern Czech region of Moravia. Although the competition is held in small basketball gymnasiums, without a track, the tour is sanctioned by the IAAF, the sport's governing body.
Robert Karl Grabarz is a retired British high jumper. Active during the 2010s, with his greatest success coming in two periods between 2012 and 2017. He was the 2012 European champion, the 2012 Diamond League high jump champion and won a shared silver medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was upgraded from bronze after disqualification of the original winner, Ivan Ukhov of Russia, for doping in 2021.
The men's high jump at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place on July 30 & 31. Thirty-seven athletes from 23 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Jacek Wszoła of Poland, breaking the US/USSR hold on the men's high jump title. It was Poland's first medal in the event. Greg Joy's silver was Canada's first medal in the event since 1932. Dwight Stones won his second consecutive bronze medal, becoming the third man to win multiple medals in the high jump and keeping the United States' streak of podium appearances alive one final time. The Soviet streak of five Games with podium appearances in the event ended.
George Burton Spitz, Jr. was an American high jumper. He jumped indoor world records in 1931 and 1932 and was a leading favorite for that summer's Olympics; however, an ankle injury troubled him there and he only placed ninth.
Walter George Marty was an American high jumper. He set both indoor and outdoor world records in his speciality and was national co-champion both indoors and outdoors in his peak year of 1934.
Brian Brown is an American male former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. His career best was 2.34 m, set in 1990. He was the national champion at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1989 and won the NCAA Indoor Division I title in 1990.
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.
The men's high jump at the 2022 World Athletics Championships was held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, on 15 and 18 July.
World U20 Champions in men's high jump | |
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