Background
Sergey Nazarovich Bubka was born on 4 December 1963, in Voroshilovgrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, as the son of a Red Army praporshik. He was interested in sports from a young age and excelled at sprint and long jump as a little boy.
Serhii Bubka statue, Donetsk
Sergey Nazarovich Bubka was born on 4 December 1963, in Voroshilovgrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, as the son of a Red Army praporshik. He was interested in sports from a young age and excelled at sprint and long jump as a little boy.
Bubka began pole-vaulting at age 9. When his coach, Vitaly Petrov, was transferred to Donetsk, Ukraine, Bubka, at age 15, followed. Bubka won the pole vault at the 1983 world track-and-field championships in Helsinki, Finland, with a vault of 5.7 metres (18 feet 8.25 inches). In subsequent years, Bubka changed the standards of pole-vaulting, setting numerous world records.
Bubka first cleared 6 metres (19 feet 8.25 inches), long considered an unattainable height, in Paris on July 13, 1985. In 1988 in Nice, France, he neared the 6.1-metre barrier with a vault of 6.06 metres (19 feet 10.5 inches), which was his second world record in five weeks. Bubka was unable to better his leap at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, but his vault of 5.9 metres (19 feet 4.25 inches) won the gold medal. Bubka had increased the world record by 21 cm (8.25 inches) between 1984 and 1988, a greater gain in 4 years than other pole-vaulters had achieved in the previous 12. During this period he was named the Soviet Union’s top sportsman three years in a row (1984–86).
In 1991 in San Sebastián, Spain, he became the first pole-vaulter to jump 6.1 metres, but a year later, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Bubka failed to place in the event. In 1994 in Sestriere, Italy, he broke his previous world record with a jump of 6.14 metres (20 feet 1.75 inches). Bubka attended the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but an injury prevented him from competing. In 1997, however, Bubka won an unprecedented sixth world championship in pole vaulting. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Bubka competed but failed to qualify for the final. He retired from competition and became an active member of the International Olympic Committee.
Sergey Bubka won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports in 1991.He was named the best sportsman of the Soviet Union for three years in a row from 1984 to 1986.
In 2003 Sergey was designated UNESCO Champion for Sport. In 2005 he was given the Panathlon International Flambeau d'Or for his contribution to the development and promotion of sport. The same year he also won the Marca Leyenda award.
Quotations: "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."
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.
He is currently serving as the president of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and is an IOC member.
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.
Physical Characteristics: His height is 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in).
Quotes from others about the person
"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
Sergey Bubka first met gymnast Lilia Tutunik when she was just a teenager and he 21. They got married in 1984 and have two sons. His elder son ventured into a career in business while the younger one, also named Sergey, is a professional tennis player.
