Valeriy Brumel

Valeriy Brumel

Personal information
Born	14 April 1942 Razvedki, Amur Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	26 January 2003(2003-01-26) (aged 60) Moscow, Russia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	2.28 m
Medal record Competitor for the  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1964 Tokyo High Jump 1960 Rome High Jump European Championships 1962 Belgrade High jump Universiade 1961 Sofia High Jump 1963 Porto Alegre High Jump

Valeriy Nikolayevich Brumel (Russian: Валерий Николаевич Брумель; 14 April 1942 – 26 January 2003)^[1] was a Soviet Olympic athlete. The 1964 Olympic champion in the Men's High Jump, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes ever to compete in the high jump. Brumel set records in the early 1960s. His jumping career was ended by a motorcycle accident in 1965.

Biography

Brumel was the son of a miner.^[2] He began going in for sports at age 12 in Lugansk, coached by P. S. Shtein. At age 16 he cleared 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in the high jump, using the then dominant straight-leg straddle technique. From the age of 17, he improved his skills under the coaching of V. M. Dyachkov in Moscow. In 1960 he broke the USSR record, 2.17 metres (7 ft 1 in), and made the Olympic Team. At the 1960 Summer Olympics, he scored the same result as the winner Robert Shavlakadze but made more attempts and won the silver (2nd place).^[1] He broke the world record for the high jump six times from 1961 to 1963, from 2.23 metres (7 ft 4 in) to 2.28 metres (7 ft 6 in).^[3] He won gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

After going undefeated during the 1965 season, Brumel injured his right leg in a motorcycle accident. He was operated on successfully by professor Gavriil Ilizarov with a new leg-lengthening procedure using his external fixator. Even after undergoing 29 surgeries, though, he could never get his career back on track, though he jumped 2.06 metres (6 ft 9 in) in 1970.

Achievements

Olympic Games

• Silver medal, XVII Olympic Games, Rome (1960)
• Gold medal, XVIII Olympic Games, Tokyo (1964)

Miscellaneous

• Master of Sports of the USSR, 1961
• USSR Champion, 1961 and 1963
• European champion, 1962
• ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year, 1963

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valeriy Brumel.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Great Russian Encyclopedia (2006), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 4, p. 243
2. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/feb/06/guardianobituaries.russia
3. ↑ "Athletics – World Record progression" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved January 8, 2006. 

• High Jump legend Brumel, dies after long illness. IAAF. 26 January 2003. Retrieved on 14 January 2011.
• IAAF Mourns Loss of Legendary High Jumper. IAAF. 28 January 2003. Retrieved on 14 January 2011.
• Frank Litsky, Valery Brumel Is Dead at 60; Russian Set High-Jump Marks. NYT 28 January 2003. Retrieved on 26 January 2014.

External links

• sports-reference

Records
Preceded by John Thomas	Men's High Jump World Record Holder 1961-06-18 – 1970-11-08	Succeeded by Ni Chih-Chin