Renaud Lavillenie

Renaud Lavillenie

Lavillenie at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.
Personal information
Born	(1986-09-18) 18 September 1986 Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, France
Height	1.76 m
Weight	69 kg
Sport
Country	France
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Pole Vault
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Outdoor 6.02 m (2013) NR Indoor 6.08 m (2014) NR [1]
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 2012 London Pole vault World Championships Silver 2013 Moscow Pole vault Bronze 2009 Berlin Pole vault Bronze 2011 Daegu Pole vault World Indoor Championships Gold 2012 Istanbul Pole vault European Championships Gold 2010 Barcelona Pole vault Gold 2012 Helsinki Pole vault European Indoor Championships Gold 2009 Turin Pole vault Gold 2011 Paris Pole vault Gold 2013 Göteborg Pole vault Continental Cup Silver 2010 Split Pole vault

Renaud Lavillenie (French pronunciation: ​[ʁə.no la.vi.lə.ni or la.vil.ni]; born 18 September 1986 in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire) is a French pole vaulter.

Lavillenie won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. Apart from his Olympic victory, he has won one World Indoor Championships gold medal, two European Championships gold medals and three European Indoor Championships gold medals. He has also won one silver medal and two bronze medals at the World Championships.^[2][3] As of 31 January 2014, he holds the French national records for the highest pole vault clearance both outdoors (6.02 m) and indoors (6.08 m). His indoor clearance of 6.08m is the second-highest personal best indoor clearance of all time. ^[4]

Lavillenie has been the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013.

Lavillenie's younger brother Valentin Lavillenie is also a pole vaulter.

Biography

Lavillenie's 2008 outdoor personal best was 5.65 metres, achieved on 27 June in Villeneuve-d'Ascq. His 2008 indoor personal best was 5.81 metres, achieved on 5 Dec in Aulnay-sous-Bois. His 2009 indoor personal best was also 5.81 metres - he cleared that height in Moscow and to win the 2009 European Indoor Championships pole vault final in Turin. ^[2]

Lavillenie improved his outdoor personal best to 5.80 m in May 2009, beating veteran French pole vaulter Romain Mesnil in Forbach.^[5] Two weeks later, he improved his outdoor personal best to 5.96 m at a meeting in Aubière, setting a world-leading outdoor mark. ^[6] He achieved another world-leading outdoor mark with a jump of 6.01 metres on 21 June 2009 at the 2009 European Team Championships in Leiria, Portugal. That 6.01m mark broke Jean Galfione's 10-year old French national outdoor record of 5.98m set in Amiens on 23 July 1999 and would remain as the French national outdoor record until Lavillenie beat in by 1 cm in July 2013. At the 2009 World Championships, Lavillenie vaulted 5.80 m in the pole vault final to win the bronze medal (his first medal in the Olympic Games, World Championships or World Indoor Championships) behind Steven Hooker and Romain Mesnil. He also took part in the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final but failed to record a mark and finished last.

At the 2010 World Indoor Championships, he only cleared 5.45 m in the qualification round and did not qualify for the final. He enjoyed better success at the inaugural 2010 IAAF Diamond League (all events were held outdoors), in which he won four of the seven pole vault events to become its pole vault overall winner. At the Adidas Grand Prix on 12 June 2010, he won the pole vault event with a jump of 5.85 m (which was a meeting record), beating Steven Hooker into second place. ^[7] Seven weeks later, he captured his first European pole vault title in Barcelona, with a jump of 5.85 m in the final.

On 5 March 2011, in the 2011 European Indoor Championships pole vault final in Paris, Lavillenie vaulted 6.03 m to win his second consecutive European Indoor Championships gold medal and break the French national indoor pole vault record that had been held by Jean Galfione (6.00 m) since 6 March 1999. That jump of 6.03 m was the third-highest personal best indoor clearance of all time. Only Sergey Bubka (6.15 m in 1993) and Steve Hooker (6.06 m in 2009) had registered higher personal best indoor clearances. ^[3] Lavillenie only managed fifth place (5.50 m) in the pole vault event of the outdoor 2011 European Team Championships. He won four of the seven pole vault events in the 2011 IAAF Diamond League to become its pole vault overall winner for the second year running. At the 2011 World Championships he cleared 5.85 m to win the World Championships pole vault bronze medal for the second time running.

Lavillenie underwent surgery on his left hand after he breaking it due to a snapped pole accident in December 2011.^[8] He returned to competition in February 2012 and won the Pole Vault Stars meet with a clearance of 5.82 m.^[9]

At the 2012 World Indoor Championships, Renaud Lavillenie won his first World Indoor Championships or World Championships gold medal by clearing 5.95m in the final, which was 15cm better than the silver and bronze medallists. At the 2012 European Championships, he cleared 5.97 m in the final to win the European Championships gold medal for the second time in a row.

At the 2012 Olympic Games, Lavillenie won the gold medal by clearing 5.97 m (a new Olympic record) in the final. He was in the bronze medal position (5.85 m) behind two Germans at 5.91 m - Björn Otto and Raphael Holzdeppe - when he cleared the aforementioned height on his third and final attempt. He had earlier failed to clear 5.91 m on his first attempt and 5.97 m on his second. After securing the gold medal when Otto and Holzdeppe failed later to match or better his 5.97 m, Lavillenie had one failed attempt at 6.02 m and two unsuccessful attempts at 6.07 m.^[10] He thus won France its 14th track and field Olympic gold medal in history, became the first French track and field Olympic champion since 1996 and the third French men's Olympic pole vault champion. ^[11]

Lavillenie won five of the seven pole vault events in the 2012 IAAF Diamond League to become its pole vault overall winner for the third year running.

At the 2013 European Indoor Championships, Lavillenie won the pole vault title for the third time in a row after clearing 6.01 m in the final. After two unsuccessful attempts at 6.07 m, his third attempt at this height was discounted as a foul, because although the bar did not fall, it had bounced up onto the upright holders rather than the pegs. He had not failed any attempts below 6.07 m, with first time clearances at 5.61, 5.76, 5.86, 5.91, 5.96 and 6.01 metres.

At the 27 July 2013 London Grand Prix fixture of the 2013 IAAF Diamond League, Lavillenie cleared 6.02 m to secure victory, setting a meeting record for the pole vault and beating his own French national outdoor pole vault record by 1 cm. He then had the bar raised to a height of 6.16 m, but he failed to clear that height three consecutive times. If he had succeeded, he would have broken Sergey Bubka's world outdoor record of 6.14m set in 1994. Lavillenie would go on to become the pole vault overall winner of the 2013 IAAF Diamond League - he would win five of its eight pole vault events - for the fourth consecutive year. ^[12]

Lavillenie was the overwhelming favorite to win the 2013 World Championships pole vault title in Moscow. He had dominated the event since the start of 2013. So far in 2013 he was the only man to have gone beyond the 6-metre mark both indoors and outdoors and he had cleared the year's highest outdoor height of 6.02 m just two weeks ago at the London Grand Prix. In the final of the 2013 World Championships, only Lavillenie and the German pole vaulter Raphael Holzdeppe managed to clear 5.89 m. Both of them failed to clear the next greater height of 5.96 m three consecutive times. Holzdeppe beat Lavillenie to the gold medal by virtue of his clearing the previous height of 5.89 m on his first attempt, whereas Lavillenie needed three attempts to clear 5.89 m. Lavillenie thus won the silver medal with a height of 5.89 m, the same height as Holzdeppe.

Lavillenie attempted to break the 14-year old world decathlon best in the pole vault event (5.76m, set by Tim Lobinger on 16 Sep 1999) at the annual Décastar meeting in September 2013, but he managed only to clear a height of 5.47 m in his specialist event.^[13]

On 31 January 2014, Lavillenie cleared 6.08m with some room to spare on his first attempt, at the Pedro's Cup indoors meeting in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Six days earlier, he had cleared 6.04m in Rouen to set a new national indoor record. The 6.08m clearance in Bydgoszcz was the world's second highest personal best indoor clearance in history, behind Sergey Bubka's 6.15m indoor world record set in Donetsk in 1993. It also enabled Lavillenie to overtake Steve Hooker to become the world's second best pole vaulter (personal best indoor and outdoor clearances taken into consideration) in history, behind Bubka's personal bests of 6.14m (outdoor) and 6.15m (indoor). In both the Bydgoszcz and Rouen meetings, Lavillenie had the bar raised to a height of 6.16 m, but in both meetings he failed in all his three attempts to clear that height. ^[14]

See also

• French records in athletics
• French all-time top lists - Pole vault

References

External links

• Renaud Lavillenie at Sports-Reference
• IAAF profile of Renaud Lavillenie
• Media related to Renaud Lavillenie at Wikimedia Commons

Sporting positions
Preceded by Brad Walker	Men's Pole Vault Best Year Performance 2009	Succeeded by Steven Hooker