Sergey Bubka

Serhii Bubka

Serhii Bubka in 2013
Personal information
Native name	Сергій Назарович Бубка
Full name	Serhii Nazarovych Bubka
Nationality	Ukrainian
Born	(1963-12-04) 4 December 1963 Voroshilovgrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Education	PhD in Pedagogy, Physical culture
Alma mater	Ukrainian Academy of Science, Kiev State Institute
Years active	1981–2001
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	80 kg (176 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 Representing the  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Pole vault World Championships Representing the  Soviet Union 1983 Helsinki Pole vault 1987 Rome Pole vault 1991 Tokyo Pole vault Representing  Ukraine 1993 Stuttgart Pole vault 1995 Gothenburg Pole vault 1997 Athens Pole vault World Indoor Championships Representing the  Soviet Union 1985 Paris Pole vault 1987 Indianapolis Pole vault 1991 Sevilla Pole vault Representing  Ukraine 1995 Barcelona Pole vault European Championships Representing the  Soviet Union 1986 Stuttgart Pole vault European Indoor Championships Representing the  Soviet Union 1985 Athens Pole vault Goodwill Games Representing the  Soviet Union 1986 Moscow Pole vault
Updated on 8 September 2012.

Serhii Nazarovych Bubka (Ukrainian: Сергій Назарович Бубка; Russian: Сергей Назарович Бубка, Sergey Nazarovich Bubka; born 4 December 1963) is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka 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 Olympic gold medal and broke the world record for men's pole vault 35 times. Sergey has also beaten his own record 14 times.^[3] (17 outdoor and 18 indoor records). He was the first pole vaulter to clear 6.0 metres and 6.10 metres.^[4][5]

He held the indoor world record of 6.15 meters, set on 21 February 1993 in Donetsk, Ukraine^[6] for almost 21 years until France's Renaud Lavillenie cleared 6.16 metres on 15 February 2014 at the same meet in the same arena.^[7] He is the current outdoor world record holder at 6.14 meters, a record he has held since 31 July 1994,^[8] though since adopting rule 260.18a in 2000 the IAAF regards Lavillenie's record as the official "world record."^[9]

Bubka is Senior Vice President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), serving since 2007, and President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, serving since 2005. He is also an Honorary Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), having been involved since 1996.

Biography

Born in Voroshilovgrad (now Luhansk), 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^[10] that rewarded each world record performance with special bonuses of $40,000.^[11]

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

Pole vault career

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.^[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 then world record of 6.14 m (20 feet 1​³⁄₄ inches) in 1994.

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.^[12] As of June 2015, 6 meters had been cleared by all athletes worldwide exactly 100 times.^[13]

Bubka officially retired from pole vault in 2001 during a ceremony at his Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk.^[14]

Technique

Sergey Bubka statue, Donetsk

Bubka possessed great strength, speed and gymnastic abilities.^[3] He gripped the pole higher than most vaulters to get extra leverage, though Bubka himself played down the effect of grip alone.^[17]

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 on the landing pad. The Petrov/Bubka model follows the technique used by Kjell Isaksson,^{[18][19][20][21]} 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.

Awards and positions held

• 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.^[22]
• He is currently serving as the president of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and is an IOC member^[23]
• Bubka was designated UNESCO Champion for Sport in 2003^[24]
• In 2005 he received the Panathlon International Flambeau d'Or for his contribution to the development and promotion of sport.^[25]
• From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and its Committee on youth policy, physical culture, sport and tourism^[26][27]
• Bubka won the Marca Leyenda in 2005
• Completed his term in IOC athletes commission in August 2008^[28]

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/

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."^[30] – 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.

See also

• 6 metres club

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergei Bubka.

• Official website
• IAAF profile for Sergey Bubka
• Bubka re-elected President of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine
• Sergey Bubka, leyenda viviente del atletismo mundial, de visita en Colombia
• Serguei Bubka en Cali
• Interview with Sergey Bubka on BBC World News
• Bubka: Olympics can save a generation
• Pole vault legend Sergei Bubka on youth, cheats and his IOC presidential bid
• In IOC, New Obstacles for an Expert at Clearing Them
• 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 – 31 August 1984 31 August 1984 – 15 February 2014	Succeeded by Thierry Vigneron Renaud Lavillenie
Preceded by Billy Olson Billy Olson Joe Dial Billy Olson Rodion Gataulin	Men's Pole Vault Indoor World Record Holder 15 January – 4 March 1984 15–17 January 1986 8 February 1986 21 February 1986 – 22 January 1989 11 February 1989 – 15 February 2014	Succeeded by Thierry Vigneron Billy Olson Billy Olson Rodion Gataulin Renaud Lavillenie
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Carl Lewis Michael Johnson	L'Équipe Champion of Champions 1985 1997	Succeeded by Diego Maradona Zinedine Zidane
Preceded by Carl Lewis	Gazzetta dello Sport Sportsman of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Diego Maradona
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