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 introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
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.
Chaunté Lowe is an American athlete who competes in the high jump. A four-time Olympian, she is the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2005 World Championship silver medalist and the 2012 World Indoor gold medalist. She initially finished sixth in the 2008 Olympic high jump final, but was promoted to the bronze medal in 2016 after three competitors were disqualified for doping. She is the American record holder in the women's high jump with an outdoor clearance of 2.05 m in 2010, and holds the indoor record with a clearance of 2.02 m in 2012.
The men's high jump was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. Qualification was held on October 20, 1964, with the final on October 21. 29 athletes from 20 nations entered, with 1 not starting in the qualification round. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Valeriy Brumel of the Soviet Union, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's high jump. Brumel, who had earned silver in 1960, and American John Thomas, who had previously taken bronze in 1960 and now won silver, became the first two men to win multiple medals in the Olympic high jump. John Rambo, also of the United States, won bronze to complete the podium.
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.
The men's high jump was an event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-eight contestants from 19 nations met on the morning of the first day of the athletic contests, on Friday November 23, 1956, and 22 cleared the qualifying height of 1.92 metres, to meet again in the afternoon. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Charles Dumas of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and 11th overall victory in the men's high jump. Chilla Porter's silver was Australia's second medal in the event. Igor Kashkarov's bronze was the Soviet Union's first.
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.
Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
Jessie Mary Hayward is a former New Zealand high jumper and long jumper. She represented her country at the 1956 Summer Olympics and 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, winning a silver medal in the high jump at the latter event.
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 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, and shared gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics Tokyo. 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. In 2021, his bronze in the 2012 Summer Olympics was promoted to silver in a three-way tie for second due to the disqualification of the original gold medalist.
The men's high jump field event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place on September 1. Thirty-two 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 Robert Shavlakadze of the Soviet Union, the nation's first victory in the men's high jump. Valery Brumel took silver; both men surpassed the previous best placing for the Soviet team of bronze. American John Thomas took bronze to keep alive the United States' streak of medaling in every edition of the Olympic men's high jump.
Mariya Aleksandrovna Lasitskene is a Russian athlete who specialises in the high jump. She is the 2020 Olympic champion and three-time world champion. With her victory in Tokyo, Lasitskene became the fourth female high jumper in history to win gold at both the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
William Noe Graber was an American pole vaulter. He broke the pole vault world record in 1932 and competed at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Bo Alexander Ljungberg was a Swedish athlete. He won two silver medals in the pole vault at the European Championships and competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics as both a pole vaulter and a triple jumper.
Erika Fisch was a German athlete. She represented the United Team of Germany at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, placing fourth in the long jump. At the 1962 European Championships she won silver in the 4 × 100 m relay with the West German team and tied for bronze in the 80 m hurdles.
George Henry Brown Jr. was an American long jumper. He was the world's best jumper between 1951 and 1953 and the favorite at the 1952 Summer Olympics, but he fouled on all his jumps in the Olympic final.
Gordon Albert Miller is a former British high jumper.
Crawford William Fairbrother was a Scottish high jumper. Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, his father was Scottish Athletics Championship medallist in high jump in the 1920s and 1930s.
Richard Dahl was a Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. His short-lived career was defined by a surprise win at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in a Swedish record of 2.12 m.
Armand Gustav "Mondo" Duplantis is a Swedish-American pole vaulter, the current world outdoor and indoor record holder, the current Olympic and World outdoor and 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.
