Debbie Brill

Debbie Brill

Brill in 1972
Personal information
Full name	Debbie Arden Brill
Born	(1953-03-10) March 10, 1953 Mission, British Columbia, Canada
Sport
Sport	High jump
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking	1st (1979)
Personal best(s)	High jump (indoor): 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) (1982, Former WR) High jump (outdoor): 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) (1984, NR)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Canada IAAF World Indoor Games 1985 Paris High jump Pan American Games 1971 Cali High jump 1979 San Juan High jump Commonwealth Games 1970 Edinburgh High jump 1978 Edmonton High jump 1982 Brisbane High jump Universiade 1977 Sofia High jump Representing Americas IAAF World Cup 1979 Montreal High jump 1977 Dusseldorf High jump

Debbie Arden Brill, OC (born March 10, 1953) is a Canadian high jump athlete who at the age of 16 became the first North American woman to clear 6 feet. Her unique reverse jumping style was called the "Brill Bend" and was developed independently around the same time as Dick Fosbury was developing the similar Fosbury Flop in the USA. This style of jumping revolutionized the event and is now almost exclusively the technique of elite high jumpers. Because Fosbury won the Gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he is more often credited with the invention. Brill won the high jump at the Pan American Games in 1971, the IAAF World Cup in 1979, and at the Commonwealth Games in 1970 and 1982. She has held the Canadian high jump record since 1969.

Career

Brill was born in Mission, British Columbia and started competing provincially in British Columbia in 1966, at age 13. The following year, she competed at the Canadian national level. Her first international competition was in 1968, at age 15.

Brill has held the Canadian National High Jump record since 1969, establishing her first Canadian High Jump record when she was 16. She set her final Canadian outdoor record in September 1984 with 1.98 metres (6 ft 6 in). Her indoor record of 1.99 metres (6 ft 6 in) was set in 1982. As of 2013, Brill's Canadian records still stand. She won the Gold medal at the first Pacific Conference Games in 1969. She would again win the Pacific Conference Games title in 1977.

Brill won the 1970 Commonwealth Games title, and the 1971 Pan Am Games. She retired after the 1972 Munich Games after becoming disillusioned with the Olympic experience; and returned to competition in 1975 and placed 4th at the Pan Am Games. She was disappointed at the 1976 Montreal Olympics where she failed to qualify for the final. She placed 3rd at the first World Cup in 1977, and won a silver medal at home in Edmonton, at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. In 1979 Brill won a gold medal in the athletics World Cup held in Montreal, Canada. She was the world's number one high jumper for 1979.

Having been ranked number one in the world by Track and Field News in 1979, Brill was one of the favourites going into the 1980 Olympics which Canada boycotted because of the U.S.S.R.'s military involvement in Afghanistan.^[1] In January 1982, Brill established a World Indoor High Jump record of 1.99 meters in Edmonton, Alberta, 5 months after giving birth to her first son, Neil. She has a daughter, Katelin, and a son, Jacob. She is married to a physician, Dr. Douglas Coleman. She was again Commonwealth Champion in 1982 at the games in Brisbane.

From 1970 to 1985, in the annual Track and Field News merit rankings, Brill was ranked in the world's top ten for the high jump twelve times (the exceptions being 1973, 74, 76 and 81; with 76 being the only active year of the four). She was ranked in the top 5 six times. The only female high jumpers with more top ten rankings are Inha Babakova and Stefka Kostadinova, both with thirteen.

In 1983, Brill was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition for being "Canada's premier woman high-jumper".^[2] In 2012, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.^[3]

In 1999, at the age of 46, Brill broke the world masters record (age 45+) when she cleared 1.76 metres in Gateshead. In 2004, she broke the age 50+ masters record by clearing 1.60 m in Langley. As of 2016, Brill's world age group records still stand.

Achievements

Records

• Canadian National High Jump Record – 1.98 m (1984, has held national record since 1969)
• Canadian National Indoor Record – 1.99 m (1982, former world indoor record)
• World Masters Record (W45+) – 1.76 (1999)
• World Masters Record (W50+) – 1.60 m (2004)

National titles

• 11 times Canadian National High Jump Champion – 1968-71,1974,1976,1978,1980,1982-1984
• 2 times United States National High Jump Champion – 1979, 1982
• AAAs National (UK) High Jump Champion – 1971

Representing  Canada
Year	Competition	Venue	Result	Height
1969	Pacific Conference Games	Tokyo, Japan	1st	1.71 m
1970	British Commonwealth Games	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	1st	1.78 m
1971	Pan American Games	Cali, Colombia	1st	1.85 m
1972	Olympic Games	Munich, West Germany	8th	1.82 m[4]
1975	Pan American Games	Mexico City, Mexico	4th
1976	Olympic Games	Montreal, Canada	—	no-height
1977	Universiade	Sofia, Bulgaria	2nd	1.90 m
	Pacific Conference Games	Canberra, Australia	1st	1.88 m
1977	World Cup	Düsseldorf, Germany	3rd	1.89 m
1978	Commonwealth Games	Edmonton, Canada	2nd	1.90 m
1979	Pan American Games	San Juan, Puerto Rico	3rd	1.85 m
	World Cup	Montreal, Canada	1st	1.96 m
1982	Commonwealth Games	Brisbane, Australia	1st	1.88 m
1983	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	6th	1.88 m
1984	Olympic Games	Los Angeles, United States	5th	1.94 m
1985	World Indoor Games	Paris, France	3rd	1.90 m
1986	Commonwealth Games	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	5th	1.88 m

Note: At the 1976 Olympic Games, Brill had three failures at her opening height of 1.75 m in the qualifying round.

References

External links

• Debbie Brill profile at IAAF
• Statistics
• Canadian Olympic Committee

Sporting positions
Preceded by Louise Ritter	USA National High Jump Champion 1979	Succeeded by Coleen Rienstra
Preceded by Pam Spencer	USA National High Jump Champion 1982	Succeeded by Louise Ritter