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.
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 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 backwards over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques. 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.
Rosemarie "Rosi" Ackermann is a German former high jumper, Olympic champion and multiple world record holder. On 26 August 1977 in Berlin, she became the first female high jumper to clear a height of 2 metres.
Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva is a Russian former pole vaulter. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a three-time World Champion, the world record holder in the event, and is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time. Isinbayeva was banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics after revelations of an extensive state-sponsored doping program in Russia, thus dashing her hopes of a grand retirement after winning the Olympic gold medal. She retired from athletics in August 2016 after being elected to serve an 8-year term on the IOC's Athletes' Commission.
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.
Kenny Harrison is a former track and field athlete competing in triple jump.
John Curtis Thomas was an American track and field athlete who set several world records in the high jump using the straddle technique. As a youth, he earned the Eagle Scout award. At the age of 17, while a freshman at Boston University, Thomas became the first man to clear 7 feet indoors. He subsequently pushed the world indoor record to 7'1½", and broke the world outdoor record three times, with a career best jump of 7'3¾" in 1960 while just 20 years old.
Charles Allen Austin is an American athlete who won the gold medal in the men's high jump at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He was inducted into the United States Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2012. Currently, Charles and Javier Sotomayor are the only two high jumpers that have won gold medals in the Olympics, Outdoor World Championships, Indoor World Championships and World Cup Championships. Hennadiy Avdyeyenko, who won the inaugural 1983 Outdoor World Championship setting the championship high jump record with a jump of 2.32m, and Charles are the only two high jumpers to win and establish the championship record in both the Outdoor World Championship and Olympic Games. Also, Charles has the highest combined average height for the two championships.
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, with which it is sometimes confused.
Dwight Edwin Stones is an American television commentator and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and former three-time world record holder in the men's high jump. During his 16-year career, he won 19 national championships. In 1984, Stones became the first athlete to both compete and serve as an announcer at the same Olympics. Since then, he has been a color analyst for all three major networks in the United States and continues to cover track and field on television. He served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of Track and Field at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
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.
Donald Thomas is a Bahamian high jumper from Freeport, Bahamas.
Elizaveta Ryzih is a German pole vault athlete. Two times an Olympian, she was 6th in London and 10th in Rio Olympic games. She was described by one athletics commentator as a "tall, fast and athletic" pole vaulter, and she has seen good success in European Championships as well as being a constant presence in the world yearly rankings of pole vaulters, placing among the top 10 vaulters in recent years.
Oscar Raise is a retired Italian high jumper.
Ronald Lee Jourdan was an American college and Olympic track and field athlete. Jourdan was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion in the high jump from Florida and member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. Jourdan, along with Reynaldo Brown of California, were the last great American high jumpers to use the straight-leg straddle, the style which dominated the sport in the 1950s and 1960s. Jourdan's personal best was 7 feet 3 inches.
Fabrizio Donato is an Italian athlete competing in the triple jump and occasionally in the long jump. He is known for winning gold medals at the 2001 Mediterranean Games and the 2009 European Indoor Championships, the latter in a new championship record of 17.59 metres. He is the Italian record holder with 17.60 metres outdoor and 17.73 indoor.
Donald Pellmann was an American centenarian multi world-record-setting masters athlete. He held the current M90 world record in the long jump, high jump, discus throw, and indoor pole vault. Additionally, he also held the American records in the 100 metres, triple jump, shot put, and javelin throw. He lived in an assisted senior living facility in Santa Clara, California.
The men's high jump field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 9 & 10. 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.
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.
Horst Mandl was an Austrian athlete. He was born in Graz, Steiermark, Austria. He represented Austria in the decathlon at the 1968 Olympics. While he was not able to complete the first day at the Olympics, he was the Austrian National Champion in 110 metres hurdles (1967-1969), high jump, long jump, triple jump 9 times in row (1964-1972), pentathlon (1967-1968) and decathlon.
