Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1Iolanda BalașIolanda BalașBalaș dominated women's high jumping for a decade with a modified scissors style that already looked old-fashioned to many observers. It hardly mattered: she set 14 world records, became the first woman over 1.90m, won Olympic gold in 1960 and 1964 and went unbeaten in roughly 150 consecutive…0i
  2. 2Valeriy BrumelValeriy BrumelBrumel was the master of the straddle, rolling face-down over the bar with a powerful, sprint-fast approach. He raised the world record six times, to 2.28m in 1963, and won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 1964 after silver in Rome. A motorcycle crash in 1965 shattered his leg, and his long comeback under…0i
  3. 3Dick FosburyDick FosburyBorn 6 Mar 1947The jumper who gave his name to the event's defining technique. Struggling with the straddle as a teenager in Oregon, Fosbury drifted towards going over head first and back down, helped by the arrival of soft foam landing beds. At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 he won gold with it, clearing an…0i
  4. 4Ulrike MeyfarthUlrike MeyfarthMeyfarth was one of the first women to win big with the flop, taking Olympic gold in Munich in 1972 aged 16 and equalling the world record of 1.92m. Twelve years later, aged 28, she won again in Los Angeles, which makes her both the youngest and, at the time, the oldest Olympic high jump champion.…0i
  5. 5Rosemarie AckermannRosemarie AckermannAckermann was the straddle's last great champion. While the flop spread around her, the East German stayed with the face-down roll and won Olympic gold in Montreal in 1976, then in 1977 became the first woman to clear 2.00m. That she reached the event's most symbolic height with the older technique…0i
  6. 6Dwight StonesDwight StonesBorn 6 Dec 1953Stones was the first flopper to break the men's world record, in 1973, and raised it three times in all. He was also the event's great showman, rehearsing every jump visibly at the top of his long, curved approach, a pre-jump routine that is now standard. Two Olympic bronzes, including one in the…0i
  7. 7Sara SimeoniSara SimeoniBorn 19 Apr 1953Simeoni's rivalry with Ackermann was the flop against the straddle in its purest form. The Italian's 2.01m in 1978 took the world record back for the flop, and she won Olympic gold in Moscow in 1980 between silvers in 1976 and 1984. Her smooth, elegant arch over the bar became a model for a…0i
  8. 8Franklin JacobsFranklin JacobsBorn 30 Dec 1957At about 1.73m, Jacobs looked nothing like a high jumper, and in 1978 he cleared 2.32m indoors in New York, a then world indoor best and 59cm above his own head. His explosive, almost springboard take-off from a fast approach made him the event's great curiosity of the late 1970s and the benchmark…0
  9. 9Patrik SjöbergPatrik SjöbergBorn 5 Jan 1965Sjöberg's 2.42m in Stockholm in 1987 was a world record and is still a share of the European record nearly four decades later. Tall, loose-limbed and fast, he relied on a long approach and a big, relaxed arch rather than brute power, and he won the 1987 world title plus three Olympic medals across…0i
  10. 10Javier SotomayorJavier SotomayorBorn 13 Oct 1967Sotomayor's 2.45m in Salamanca in 1993 has been the world record for more than 30 years, and no one has come within a centimetre of it since 2014. He combined a sprinter's approach speed with a powerful, upright take-off, and in 1989 he became the first man over eight feet. Olympic gold in…0i