Sergey Nazarovych Bubka is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka was twice named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News, and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.
Kory Merrill Tarpenning is a retired American pole vaulter best known for finishing fourth at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, having previously competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Renaud Lavillenie is a French pole vaulter. Lavillenie won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London and the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In addition to his Olympic success, he has won three World Indoor Championships gold medals (record), three European Championships gold medals and four European Indoor Championships gold medals. He has also won one silver medal and four bronze medals at the World Championships. As of 25 August 2016, he holds the French national records for the highest pole vault clearance both outdoors and indoors. The 6.16 was the absolute world record for the pole vault for over six years, 2014–2020. He was the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League in seven consecutive years, from 2010 to 2016.
Paweł Wojciechowski is a Polish pole vaulter. He won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.
Luke Cutts is a British pole vaulter. His personal best of 5.83 m set in 2014 is the British indoor record for the event. His outdoor best of 5.70 m puts him third on the all-time British lists.
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.
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.
Yuriy Makarovich Sergiyenko is a Ukrainian former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. He competed internationally for the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and finally Ukraine. His personal best of 2.34 m was set indoors in 1985 and he equalled that mark in 1993.
Matthew Simson is a male British former shot putter. He was the gold medallist in the event at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, which he won with his career best throw of 19.49 m.
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.
Zhang Wei is a Chinese male track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. He has a personal best of 5.62 m, set indoors in 2013. He was a silver medallist at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in 2012 and won the regional title at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships.
Jacob "Jake" Blankenship is an American track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. He holds a personal record of 5.80 m for the event, set in 2015. He placed third at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2015.
Hreinn Halldórsson is an Icelandic former track and field athlete who competed in the shot put. His personal best for the discipline was 21.09 m, a former national record.
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.
Sergey Valentinovich Smirnov was a Russian track and field athlete who competed in the shot put. He was a medallist at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 1987 and at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 1986 and 1987. Smirnov represented the Soviet Union at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics.
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.
Huang Changzhou is a Chinese track and field athlete who competes in the long jump. He was the bronze medallist at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships. His personal best is 8.21 m.
Grigoriy Yemets is a Ukrainian former track and field athlete who competed in the triple jump for the Soviet Union.
Andrea Müller is a German female former track and field athlete who competed in the pole vault. She was active during the early stages of the formal acceptance of women's pole vault into international programmes by the International Association of Athletics Federations. She briefly held the world record for the event, with a clearance of 4.18 m in August 1995. The former holder, Daniela Bártová, improved upon that the same month.
The men's pole vault at the 2022 World Athletics Championships was held at the Hayward Field in Eugene on 22 and 24 July 2022.
Soviet Union 
