Sergey Bubka

Sergey Bubka

Sergey Bubka in 2007
Personal information
Native name	Сергі́й Наза́рович Бу́бка
Full name	Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka
Nationality	Ukrainian
Born	(1963-12-04) 4 December 1963 Voroshilovgrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Education	Physical culture
Alma mater	Kiev State Institute
Years active	1981–2001
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	80 kg (180 lb)
Website	www.sergeybubka.com
Sport
Country	Soviet Union (1981–1991)  Ukraine (1991–2001)
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Pole vault
Turned pro	1981
Coached by	Vitaly Petrov
Retired	2001
Medal record Men's athletics Competitor for the  Soviet Union Olympic Games Gold 1988 Seoul Pole vault World Championships Competitor for the  Soviet Union Gold 1983 Helsinki Pole vault Gold 1987 Rome Pole vault Gold 1991 Tokyo Pole vault Competitor for  Ukraine Gold 1993 Stuttgart Pole vault Gold 1995 Gothenburg Pole vault Gold 1997 Athens Pole vault World Indoor Championships Competitor for the  Soviet Union Gold 1985 Paris Pole vault Gold 1987 Indianapolis Pole vault Gold 1991 Sevilla Pole vault Competitor for  Ukraine Gold 1995 Barcelona Pole vault European Championships Competitor for the  Soviet Union Gold 1986 Stuttgart Pole vault Goodwill Games Competitor for the  Soviet Union Gold 1986 Moscow Pole vault
Updated on 8 September 2012.

Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka (Ukrainian: Сергі́й Наза́рович Бу́бка; Russian: Серге́й Наза́рович Бу́бка, Sergey Nazarovich Bubka; born 4 December 1963) is a retired Ukrainian pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, was twice named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News,^[1] and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.^[2]

Bubka won six consecutive IAAF World Championships, an Olympics gold and broke the world record for men's pole vaulting 35 times^[3] (17 outdoor and 18 indoor records). He was the first to clear 6.0 metres and the remains the only (as of September 2013) to clear 6.10 metres (20 ft).^[4][5]

He holds the current outdoor world record of 6.14 metres, (20 feet 1³⁄₄ inches), set on 31 July 1994 in Sestriere, Italy^[6] and the current indoor world record of 6.15 meters, set on 21 February 1993 in Donetsk, Ukraine.^[7]

Biography

Born in Voroshilovgrad (now Luhans'k), Bubka was a good track-and-field athlete in the 100-meter dash and the long jump, but became a world-class competitor only when he turned to the pole vault. In 1983, virtually unknown internationally, he won the world championship at Helsinki, Finland, and the following year set his first world record, clearing 5m 75 cm (19 ft 2‚ in). Until the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (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.

He has a son who is a professional tennis player, also called Sergei.

Pole vaulting career

Sergey Bubka entered international athletics in 1981 participating in the European Junior Championships where he reached 7th place. But the 1983 World Championships held in Helsinki proved to be his actual entry point to the mainstream 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.^[5] 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 current world record of 6.14 m (20 feet 1³⁄₄ inches) in 1994.

He became the first athlete ever to jump over 6.10 metres, in San Sebastián, Spain in 1991. As of September 2012, no other athlete has cleared 6.07, indoors or outdoors. He set the current world record of 6.14 metres in 1994 after some commentators had already predicted the decline of the great sportsman. Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimetres (8 inches) in the 4 years between 1984 and 1988, more than other pole vaulters had achieved in the previous 12 years. He cleared 6.00 meters or better on 45 occasions, more than all other athletes in history combined (as of 20 April 2009 there have been 42 clearances of 6.00 metres by other athletes).^[8]

Bubka officially retired from his pole vault career in 2001 with a ceremony at his Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk.^[9]

Olympics curse

Though he had complete dominance on pole vaulting at his time, he had a poor record in the Olympic Games. The first Olympics after his introduction into international athletics was in 1984, which was boycotted by the USSR along with most other Eastern Bloc countries. Two months before the games he vaulted 12 cm higher than the eventual Olympic gold medal winner Pierre Quinon. In 1988 Bubka entered the Seoul Olympics and won his only Olympic gold medal clearing 5.90 m. In 1992 he failed to clear in his first 3 attempts (5.70, 5.70, 5.75 m) and was out of the Barcelona Olympics. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 a heel injury caused him to withdraw from the competition without making even one jump. In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics he was eliminated from the final after three unsuccessful attempts at 5.70 m.^[10]

IAAF World championships

Bubka won the pole vault event in 6 consecutive IAAF World Championships in Athletics from 1983 to 1997:

World record progression by Bubka

Bubka broke the world record for men's pole vaulting a total of 35 times in his career.^[3] He broke the outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times. In his dominance, Bubka lost his outdoor world record only once in his illustrious career. After Thierry Vigneron, of France, broke his record on 31 August 1984 at the Golden Gala international track meet in Rome, Bubka subsequently reclaimed the record on his next run, just minutes later.^[11]

The fact that most of the time the record he improved was his own demonstrates his absolute dominance in the event. Exactly how high he could have jumped at his best is unknown: because of the large prizes on offer from event promoters for breaking world records, the majority of his world record attempts were made at 1 cm higher than the existing record, and once achieved, he would not attempt another record jump until the next opportunity to collect a prize, even after a substantial clearance showing he could have achieved a higher height.^[12]

Technique

"Serhiy Bubka" statue, Donetsk

Bubka possessed great strength, speed and gymnastic abilities.^[3] His average speed during pole vaulting approach was reported as 35.7 km/h (9.9 m/s, 22.2 mph)^{[citation needed]}. He gripped the pole higher than most vaulters to get extra leverage, though Bubka himself played down the effect of grip alone.^[13] Bubka's strength meant that he could use a pole that was relatively heavy for his weight, thereby generating more recoil force. The statue erected in his image in Donetsk is using an incorrect (and impossible) vaulting-grip on the pole.

His development and mastery of the Petrov/Bubka technical model is also considered as a key to his success. A technical model is a sequence of positions and pressures that describe the method and form of a style 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.^{[citation needed]} Most conventional models focus on creating maximum bend in the pole before leaving the ground, by planting the pole heavily on the landing pad. The Petrov/Bubka model follows from the technique used by Kjell Isaksson,^[14][15] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and positions held

• Bubka won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports in 1991
• Bubka was awarded 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 was designated as an IAAF council member in 2001. In 2011, he was elected to a 4-year term as a Vice-President of the organization.^[16]
• He is currently serving as the president of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and is an IOC member^[17]
• Bubka was designated UNESCO Champion for Sport in 2003^[18]
• In 2005 he received the Panathlon International Flambeau d'Or for his contribution to the development and promotion of sports.^[19]
• From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament for For United Ukraine (Regions of Ukraine faction) and its committee on questions of youth policy, physical culture, sport and tourism^[20][21]
• Bubka won the Marca Leyenda in 2005
• Completed his term in IOC athletes commission in August 2008^[22]

Bubka is today a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.^[23]

Candidacy for IOC President

On 28 May 2013, Sergey Bubka confirmed that he would run for President of the International Olympic Committee. At the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires he lost the election to Thomas Bach.^[24]

Quotes

• "I love the pole vault because it is a professor's sport. One must not only run and jump, but one must think. Which pole to use, which height to jump, which strategy to use. I love it because the results are immediate and the strongest is the winner. Everyone knows it. In everyday life that is difficult to prove."^[25] – Sergey Bubka
• "Here is a man who has personally altered his art form, changed the way competitors prepare for it and perform it, even the way spectators perceive it." – Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated about Bubka
• "My jump was imperfect, my run-in was too short and my hands were too far back at takeoff. When I manage to iron out these faults, I am sure I can improve." – In an interview after he was the first person to break 20 feet (6.10 m).

Bibliography

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

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergei Bubka.

• Sergey Bubka's Official Site
• IAAF profile for Sergey Bubka
• Magazine article tracing Bubka's career
• A small video with the highlights of Bubka's career
• http://www.neovault.com/articles_bubka_speaks.asp
• Masters T&F Pole Vault All-Time Rankings
• ESPN bio

Preceded by Viktor Yanukovych	President of Ukrainian NOC 2005 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Records
Preceded by Thierry Vigneron Thierry Vigneron	Men's Pole Vault World Record Holder 26 May 1984 – 31 August 1984 31 August 1984 –	Succeeded by Thierry Vigneron Incumbent
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Carl Lewis Diego Maradona	L'Équipe Champion of Champions 1985 1997	Succeeded by Michael Johnson Zinedine Zidane
Preceded by Ben Johnson Michael Johnson	Men's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1988 1991	Succeeded by Roger Kingdom Kevin Young
Preceded by Stefan Edberg	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1991	Succeeded by Kevin Young
Preceded by Alfonso Pons	Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 1991	Succeeded by Miguel Indurain
Sporting positions
Preceded by Thierry Vigneron Rodion Gataullin Okkert Brits	Men's Pole Vault Best Year Performance 1984 – 1989 1991 – 1994 1996 – 1997	Succeeded by Rodion Gataullin Okkert Brits Jeff Hartwig
Olympic Games
Preceded by None	Flagbearer for  Ukraine Atlanta 1996	Succeeded by Yevhen Braslavets