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.
Frederick Carlton Lewis is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, when he last won an Olympic event. He is one of only six Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games.
Valeriy Nikolayevich Brumel was a Russian high jumper. The 1964 Olympic champion and multiple world record holder, he is regarded as one of the greatest athletes ever to compete in the high jump. His international career was ended by a motorcycle crash in 1965.
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 backward over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques. Debbie Brill was developing her similar "Brill Bend" around the same time. 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.
Elroy Leon "Crazylegs" Hirsch was an American professional football player, sport executive and actor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974. He was also named to the all-time All-Pro team selected in 1968 and to the National Football League (NFL) 1950s All-Decade Team.
Alvin Christian "Al" Kraenzlein was an American track-and-field athlete known as "the father of the modern hurdling technique". He was the first sportsman in the history of the Olympic games to win four individual gold medals in a single discipline at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. As of 2016, Alvin Kraenzlein is the only track-and-field athlete who has won four individual titles at one Olympics. Kraenzlein is also known for developing a pioneering technique of straight-leg hurdling, which allowed him to set two world hurdle records. He is an Olympic Hall of Fame (1984) and National Track and Field Hall of Fame (1974) inductee.
Andrew Rock is an American sprinter who specializes in the 400 meter dash.
Kenny Harrison is a former track and field athlete competing in triple jump.
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, for which it is sometimes confused.
The Western roll was a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University. This technique was succeeded by the straddle.
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.
Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
The 1925 NCAA Track and Field Championships was the fourth NCAA track and field championship. The event was held at Stagg Field in Chicago, Illinois in June 1925. Stanford University won the team title, and six NCAA records were set at the two-day meet.
The men's high jump field event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 9 and 10 at the Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany. 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.
Kevin Cordes is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in breaststroke events. He currently represents the Cali Condors which is part of the International Swimming League. Cordes was a member of the 2016 U.S. Men's Olympic Swimming Team. He won gold in the 4 × 100 m medley relay as a member of the preliminary relay, and took 4th place in the Men's 100m Breaststroke at the 2016 Olympic Games. He is the former American record holder in the 50-meter and 100-meter breaststroke.
Joseph Patrick Faust is an American track and field athlete known for the high jump. He extended his personal jumping flight interests into mathematics and aviation.
Jarrion Lawson is an American sprinter and long jumper. He placed third in the men's long jump at the 2012 World Junior Championships. Competing for the Arkansas Razorbacks, he won five individual NCAA championship titles and one relay title between 2014 and 2016; he won three events at the 2016 NCAA outdoor championships, a triple previously accomplished only by Jesse Owens.
Nathaniel Page is an American former track and field athlete who began as a high jumper before concentrating on the 400 meters hurdles. He finished second in the high jump with 2.23 meters at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, to qualify for the Moscow Olympics, which the American team boycotted.
The 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships were the 97th NCAA Men's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the 37th NCAA Women's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships held for the sixth consecutive year at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on the campus of the University of Oregon. In total, forty-two different men's and women's track and field events were contested from Wednesday June 6 to Saturday June 9, 2018.
Matthew Boling is an American track and field athlete specializing in the sprints and long jump. He won four gold medals at the 2019 Pan American U20 Championships in the 100 m, 200 m, 4 × 100 m relay and 4 × 400 m relay, and helped set world under-20 records in both of the relay races for the United States. He also ran in the semi-final for the American 4 × 400 m relay team at the 2018 World U20 Championships that went on to earn silver in the final. Boling would later go on to win a gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the mixed 4 x 400 m relay, and would help set a world record for the event in the process.
