 Nordwig in 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 27 August 1943 (age 81) Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 184 cm (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 63 kg (139 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Pole vault | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Tus Jena | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best | 5.50 m (1972) [1] [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Wolfgang Nordwig (born 27 August 1943) is a former East German pole vaulter. He competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a bronze and a gold medal, respectively, clearing 5.50 m in 1972. [1]
Nordwig won a bronze in the pole vault at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He was a member of the East German team, the first time East and West Germany had sent separate teams to the Olympics. In the contest, Nordwig, the American Bob Seagren and the West-German Claus Schiprowski all cleared at 5.40 m, Seagren and Schiprowski on their second attempts and Nordwig on his third. All missed at 5.45 m. Seagren was the gold medal winner because he had had fewer misses at lower heights than Schiprowski. [3]
Nordwig was Olympic champion at the pole vault at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nordwig's keenest rivals for the title the Americans Bob Seagren, Steve Smith and Jan Johnson and the Swede Kjell Isaksson were amongst those vaulters banned by the world governing body the IAAF from competing with the lighter poles they had been using all season. An initial ban in July had been reversed on 27 August, but on the eve of the competition, 30 August, the IAAF reimposed their ban claiming the poles were new equipment and therefore invalid. Seagren, the defending champion, finished second; Johnson third; and Smith and Isaksson did not even qualify for the final. [4] [5] Nordwig had never preferred the new pole so was unaffected. [6]
In the competition itself, Johnson was eliminated at 5.40 m with Nordwig clearing on his second attempt and Seagren on his third. Nordwig then cleared 5.45 m with Seagren unable to match him. Nordwig then underlined his triumph by clearing 5.50 m for a new Olympic record and his personal best. [5]
Nordwig won five European titles: three outdoors (1966, 1969 and 1971) and two indoors (1971 and 1972). Domestically he won the East German title outdoors in 1965-72 and indoors in 1964–66, and 1969–72. [1] During his career he set two world records. [7] The first occasion was on 17 June 1970 in Berlin, Germany when he cleared 5.45 m (17 ft 10.6 in). The second was on 3 September 1970 in Turin, Italy, when he broke his own world record with a jump of 5.46 m (17 ft 11.0 in). In 1972 he became East German Sportsman of the Year and retired from competitions. [1]
Nordwig was voted by the experts at Track and Field News to be ranked among the best in the world (the best in 1970 and 1971) in the pole vault in the period from 1965 to 1972. [8]
| Year | World rank |
|---|---|
| 1965 | 2nd |
| 1966 | 3rd |
| 1967 | 6th |
| 1968 | 2nd |
| 1969 | 3rd |
| 1970 | 1st |
| 1971 | 1st |
| 1972 | 3rd |
Nordwig had a degree in physics and defended a PhD in economics. He worked for VEB Carl Zeiss Jena eventually becoming a director of research and development. Later, he was managing director of a travel company in Berlin. [9] His brothers Reinhard and Hans-Jürgen competed nationally in middle-distance running. [1]
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad and officially branded as Munich 1972, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the second Summer Olympics to be held in Germany, after the 1936 Games in Berlin, which had taken place under the Nazi rule. Germany became only the second country at that point after the United States to have two different cities host the Summer Olympics.
Robert Seagren is a retired American pole vaulter, the 1968 Olympic champion.
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Dmitry Andreevich Starodubtsev ; born 3 January 1986 in Chelyabinsk) is a Russian pole vaulter. He has a personal best of 5.90 m and was a finalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. He has won medals at world youth and junior levels and was third at the Summer Universiade in 2007.
Yang Yansheng is a Chinese pole vaulter. He is the former Chinese record holder for the event both indoors and outdoors with bests of 5.80 and 5.75 metres respectively.
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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.
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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.
The men's pole vault field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 1 & 2. Twenty-one athletes from 12 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Wolfgang Nordwig of East Germany, the first non-American to win the event. Nordwig and silver medalist Bob Seagren were the third and fourth men to win multiple medals in the event.
Stephen Norwood Smith was an American Olympic pole vaulter. He was the first person to clear the 18 foot barrier indoors. He was the number one ranked pole vaulter in the world in 1973.
The men's pole vault was one of four men's jumping events on the athletics program at the 1968 Summer Olympics. The competition had two rounds, qualifying and a final, which were held on 14 and 16 October respectively at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City. Twenty-three athletes from 15 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Bob Seagren of the United States, the nation's 16th consecutive victory in the men's pole vault. Claus Schiprowski of West Germany took silver, while Wolfgang Nordwig of East Germany took bronze—the first medals for each of those nations as separate teams, though two West German vaulters had earned silver and bronze for the United Team of Germany in 1964.
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.
Piotr Lisek is a Polish athlete specialising in the pole vault. He won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships and the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships. He is the first Polish vaulter to jump over 6 meters.
Armand "Mondo" Duplantis is a Swedish-American pole vaulter. Widely regarded as the greatest pole vaulter of all time, Duplantis is the world outdoor and indoor record holder. He's a two-time Olympic champion, two-time World outdoor and indoor champion, and the current European champion.
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European Athletics Championships champions in men's pole vault | |
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World University Games champions in men's pole vault | |
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