Sergey Bubka

Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka (Ukrainian: Сергій Назарович Бубка; Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka; born 4 December 1963) is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He is the 1988 Olympic Champion, a record six-time consecutive World Champion, a record four-time World Indoor Champion, the 1985 European Indoor Champion, the 1986 European Champion and a seven-time IAAF Grand Prix Final Champion. Bubka broke the world record in men’s pole vault a record 35 times (17 outdoors, 18 indoors), and was the first pole vaulter to clear 6.0 meters and 6.10 meters, holding the indoor record of 6.15 meters from 1993 to 2014 and outdoor record of 6.14 meters from 1994 to 2020.

Bubka represented the Soviet Union from 1981 until its dissolution in 1991 and Ukraine thereafter until his retirement in 2001. He was twice named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News, and in 2012 was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.

Bubka serves as Senior Vice President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since 2007 and served as President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine from 2005 to November 2022. He is also an Honorary Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), having been involved since 1996. His older brother, Vasiliy Bubka, was also a medal-winning pole vaulter.

📌 Biography

Born in Luhansk, Sergey Nazarovych Bubka was a track-and-field athlete in the 100-meter sprint and the long jump, but became a world-class champion only when he turned to the pole vault. In 1983, he won the world championship in Helsinki, Finland, and the following year set his first world record, clearing 5.85 m (19 ft 2 in). Until the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991, Bubka competed for Soviet teams. By 1992, he was no longer bound to the Soviet system, and signed a contract with Nike. that rewarded each world record performance with special bonuses of $40,000.

His son, Sergei Bubka is a former professional tennis player.

From 2002 to 2006, Bubka was a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada with the Party of Regions group and until 2014 an advisor to Viktor Yanukovych. He was on the youth policy, physical culture, sport and tourism committee while a MVR.

Bubka has been linked to business conducted in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories.^{[citation needed]} On 5 March 2022, Bubka professed his love for his homeland after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and declared: “Ukraine will win”.

📌 Sporting 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 meters (18 feet 8 inches).^{[citation needed]} 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 meters (19 feet 8 inches) for the first time on 13 July 1985 in Paris. 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.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3⁄4 inches) in 1994. He vaulted on UCS Spirit poles throughout his later career.

He became the first athlete ever to jump over 6.10 meters, in San Sebastián, Spain in 1991. Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimeters (8 inches) in the period from 1984 to 1994. He cleared 6.00 meters or better on 45 occasions.

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

🔹 Olympics curse

The first Olympics after Bubka’s introduction to the international athletics was held in 1984 and was boycotted by the USSR along with the majority of other Eastern Bloc countries. In 1988 Bubka competed in the Seoul Olympics and won his only Olympic gold medal clearing 5.90 meters. In 1992 he failed to clear in his first three attempts (5.70, 5.70, 5.75 meters) and was out of the Barcelona Olympics. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, a heel injury caused him to withdraw from the competition without any attempts. In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, he was eliminated from the final after three unsuccessful attempts at 5.70 meters.

🔹 IAAF World championships

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

🔹 World record progression

Bubka broke the world record for men’s pole vault 35 times during his career. He broke the outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times. Bubka lost his outdoor world record only once in his 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 attempt on the same runway minutes later.

🔹 Technique

Bubka gripped the pole higher than most vaulters to get extra leverage, though Bubka himself played down the effect of grip alone.

His development of the Petrov/Bubka technical model is also considered a key to his success. The Petrov/Bubka model 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 in the pole vault box. The Petrov/Bubka model follows the technique used by Kjell Isaksson, 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]}

📌 Recognition