BUBKA, SERGEY

born Dec. 14, 1963, Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now Luhansk, Ukraine] Ukrainian athlete, the first pole vaulter to clear 6.1 m (20 feet). Bubka began pole vaulting at the age of nine, and when his coach, Vitaly Petrov, was transferred to Donetsk, Ukraine, Bubka, at the age of 15, followed. Bubka won the pole vault at the 1983 world track-and-field championships in Helsinki, Fin., with a vault of 5.7 m (18 feet 8 1/4 inches). In subsequent years, Bubka changed the standards of pole vaulting, setting numerous world records. Bubka first cleared 6 m (19 feet 8 1/4 inches), long considered an unattainable height, in Paris on July 13, 1985. In 1988 he neared the 6.1-metre (20-foot) barrier with a vault of 6.06 m (19 feet 10 1/2 inches) in Nice, France, which was his second world record in five weeks. Bubka was unable to better his leap at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but his vault of 5.9 m (19 feet 4 1/4 inches) won the gold medal. Bubka had increased the world record by 21 cm (8 1/4 inches) between 1984 and 1988, a greater gain in 4 years than other pole vaulters had achieved in the previous 12. In San Sebastin, Spain, he became the first pole vaulter to jump 6.1 m (20 feet), but a year later, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, Bubka failed to place in the event. Bubka arrived in Atlanta, Ga., for the 1996 Olympics, but an injury prevented him from competing. Bubka's speed and strength enabled him to use poles that were unusually long and stiff for better catapulting action. He was noted for a vaulting style in which he gripped his pole several inches higher than other competitors. Bubka was named the Soviet Union's top sportsman three years in a row in 198486.