Sergey Bubka

Born in Luhansk, Sergey Nazarovych Bubka was a track-and-field athlete in the 100-meter dash and the long jump, but became a world-class champion only when he turned to the pole vault. In 1983, virtually unknown internationally, he won the world championship in Helsinki, Finland, and the following year set his first world record, clearing 5.85m (19 ft 2 in). Until the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991, Bubka competed for Soviet teams. The Soviet sports system rewarded athletes for setting new world records, and he became noted for establishing new records by slim amounts, sometimes as little as a centimeter higher. This allowed him to collect frequent bonus payments and made Bubka an attraction at track-and-field meets. By 1992, he was no longer bound to the Soviet system, and signed a contract with Nike[11] that rewarded each world record performance with special bonuses of $40,000.[12]

He has a son who was a professional tennis player, whose name is Sergei.

Sergey Bubka started competing on the international athletics scene in 1981 when he participated in the European Junior Championship finishing seventh. But the 1983 World Championship held in Helsinki was his actual entry point to the world athletics, where a relatively unknown Bubka snatched the gold, clearing 5.70 metres (18 feet 8 inches). The years that followed witnessed the unparalleled dominance of Bubka, with him setting new records and standards in pole vaulting.

He set his first world record of 5.85m on 26 May 1984 which he improved to 5.88m a week later, and then to 5.90m a month later. He cleared 6.00 metres (19 feet 8 inches) for the first time on 13 July 1985 in Paris.[6] This height had long been considered unattainable. With virtually no opponents, Bubka improved his own record over the next 10 years until he reached his career best and the then world record of 6.14 m (20 feet 13⁄4 inches) in 1994. He primarily vaulted on UCS Spirit poles throughout his later career.[13][14]

He became the first athlete ever to jump over 6.10 metres, in San Sebastián, Spain in 1991. Until January 2014, no other athlete on earth had cleared 6.07, indoors or outdoors. In 1994, he achieved his personal record with a vault of 6.14 meters, long after many commentators assumed the great sportsman was retired. Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimetres (8 inches) in the period from 1984 to 1988, more than other pole vaulters had achieved in the previous 12 years. He cleared 6.00 meters or better on 45 occasions.[15] As of June 2015, 6 meters had been cleared by all athletes worldwide exactly 100 times.[16]

Bubka officially retired from pole vault in 2001 during a ceremony at his Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk.[17]

Sergey Bubka statue, Donetsk

Bubka possessed great strength, speed and gymnastic abilities.[4] He gripped the pole higher than most vaulters to get extra leverage, though Bubka himself played down the effect of grip alone.[20]

His development and mastery of the Petrov/Bubka technical model is also considered a key to his success. (A technical model is a sequence of positions and pressures which describe the method and style form of pole vaulting.) The Petrov/Bubka model is considered superior to many others today, because it allows the vaulter to continuously put energy into the pole while rising towards the bar. Most conventional models focus on creating maximum bend in the pole before leaving the ground, by planting the pole heavily in the pole vault box. The Petrov/Bubka model follows the technique used by Kjell Isaksson,[21][22][23][24] which concentrates on driving the pole up, rather than bending it while planting it on the landing pad, combined with high running speed. While the traditional models depended on the recoil by bending the pole, the Petrov/Bubka model may exploit the recoil of the pole and exert more energy on the pole during the swinging action.

• Bubka won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports in 1991
• Bubka was awarded the best sportsman of the Soviet Union for three years in a row from 1984 to 1986
• Bubka was voted Sportsman of the Year for 1997 by the influential newspaper L'Équipe
• Bubka was honored as the best pole vaulter of the last half century by Track & Field News
• Bubka entered in FICTS Hall of Fame and was awarded with Excellence Guirlande d'Honneur in 2001.
• Bubka was designated an IAAF council member in 2001. In 2011, he was elected a vice-president of the organization for a four-year term.[25]
• He is currently serving as the president of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and is an IOC member[26]
• Bubka was designated UNESCO Champion for Sport in 2003[27][28]
• In 2005 he received the Panathlon International Flambeau d'Or for his contribution to the development and promotion of sport.[29]
• From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and its committee on youth policy, physical culture, sport and tourism[30]
• Bubka won the Marca Leyenda in 2005
• He was awarded the Hero of Ukraine civilian award in 2001[31]
• Completed his term in IOC athletes commission in August 2008[32]

Today Bubka is a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of more than 90 famous elite created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization placed under the High Patronage of H.S.H Prince Albert II. This group of top level champions, wish to make sport a tool for dialogue and social cohesion. http://www.peace-sport.org/our-champions-of-peace/

• Sergey Bubka (1987). An Attempt Is Reserved (in Russian). Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya.

• 6 metres club

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergei Bubka.

• Official website
• IAAF profile for Sergey Bubka