20 Greatest High Jumpers of All Time

Unlike other athletes on this list, Hemingway's Olympic medal didn't come when he was a teenager nor when he was in his 20s.

The American athlete, Matt, won his first and only Olympic medal at 32 in the 2004 games held in Athens. The 6 ft 7 track and field athlete had a personal best record of 2.38 meters and was a graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Hemingway won one national indoor championship and earned second place in the 1996 NCAA outdoor championship. The American stayed two years out of the sport before making a comeback in 2000. 

After not having the best of comebacks, Matt injured his foot, which made him take a break again and rejoin the sport in 2002, and he must be glad he didn't give up after suffering from two career setbacks.

Juri Tarmak, the Estonian native who competed for the Soviet Union, is a one-time Olympic medalist. 

Tarmak won gold at the 1972 Munich Olympic games and was the last athlete to use the straddle technique to win the tournament. A year before his Olympic display, Juri won silver at the 1971 European Indoor Championships. 

He followed the Olympic gold with a silver medal at the 1972 European Indoor Championships and retired from the game two years later. 

Tarmak moved back to Estonia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and was a member of the sports club Tallinna Kompass for a decade until 2012. 

Hennadiy Avdeyenko was a triple jump athlete before he decided to switch his career in 1980 to the high jump.

Avdeyenko represented the Soviet Union and took everyone by surprise after he appeared in the 1983 World Championship. The 20-year-old not only got a podium finish but also won gold. 

Between winning his first medal and his first-ever European Championship medal in 1987, Hennadiy had already fallen behind his peers. But later that year, he won bronze at the European Indoor Championship and made his personal best record of 2.38 meters to win the silver medal in the 1987 World Outdoor Championships. 

Avdeyenko won his first and only Olympic medal in 1988, taking home gold by equalling his personal best. He once again fell to obscurity after winning the gold medal in the Olympics and soon decided to retire. 

The most influential man in the history of the high jump, Dick Fosbury, changed the trajectory of sports. The American athlete made history on October 20, 1968, when he debuted the never before seen move Fosbury Flop.

A civil engineer student, Fosbury idolized Valeriy Brumel but was never able to do what his idol did. So instead of imitating the legendary player, Fosbury took the matter into his hand and decided to put his engineering degree to use. 

The Oregon native won gold in 1968 Mexico City and set a personal best record of 2.24 meters and a new Olympic record at the time. 

Many media outlets before the game had dismissed the athlete and said he looked like a two-legged camel. But now it is only Fosbury Flop that is seen being used by the athletes. Though the American never competed in another Olympics, his influence over the game is everlasting. 

Gerd Wessig, who represented East Germany in the 1980 Olympics, took home gold setting a world record in the process.

Wessig achieved a height of 2.36 meters and bested his competition and Polish legend Jacek Wszola, who was expected to win the tournament. 

In 1983, Wessig tried his luck in the decathlon but to no avail returned to the high jump. Though he suffered from continuous injuries, he shined in national championships, having won the East German Championships in 1988 and 1989.

After retiring, Gerd chose to become an entrepreneur and sold sports equipment and leisure systems. 

The American athlete, Dwight Stones, took home bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics at 18. Stones had already shown signs of being a top athlete in his high school days.

Before competing in the Olympics, Stones made a national record of 2.71 meters at Glendale High School. Stones set his personal best record of 2.32 meters four days after the 1976 Olympics.

Dwight was the favorite to win gold at the 1976 Olympics but had to settle for bronze. The American set the world record three times in his career and won six AAU outdoor titles.

After ending his career, Stones decided to make a sports commentator joining the ESPN team for the game show Dream League. He was one of the athletes at the 1984 Olympics to star as an athlete as well as work as an announcer. 

Hollis Conway still holds the American record of 2.4 meters in the indoor championship, which he made in 1991.

Conway is a two-time Olympic medalist having won his first medal in 1988 in Seoul. The American, who was 21 at the time, won silver in Seoul, only being bested by Soviet Union's Hennadiy Avdyeyenko.

Hollis followed the silver with a gold in the 1991 World Indoor Championships but couldn't replicate the same form in the World Championship. He took home a bronze at the 1991 Tokyo World Championship.

The fan favorite didn't quite reach fans' expectations as he settled for a bronze in the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. The graduate of the University of Louisiana, Conway won a six-time NCAA All-American and three-time NCAA champion. 

John Thomas and Valrey Brumel had a rivalry like none in the high jump world. But it was always the Soviet Union who came out on top.

Thomas is a two-time Olympic medalist, having won bronze in 1960 Rome and silver in 1964 Tokyo. The American athlete won four NCAA and seven amateur athletic union championships and was a star at Boston University. 

The rivalry between John and Brumel was during the Cold War, which made it even more interesting for the crowds who came to watch the two legends at the stadiums. Thomas held the world outdoor record three times and was the first to jump seven feet indoors.

Though they might have been rivals on the field, the two players were great friends off of it. The track and field star passed away in 2013 at 71 while undergoing vascular surgery. 

Vladimir Yashchenko is fondly remembered as the last king of the straddle. He set a record using the traditional technique when Fosbury Flop swept the whole world.

Yashchenko set the record of 2.33 meters using the Straddle technique, as he broke the record set by Dwight Stones in 1973 of 2.3 meters using the Fosbury Flop.

The 19-year-old teenager, Yashchenko, won gold at European Championship, followed by gold in the European Indoor Championship that same year. In 1979 he won gold at European Indoor Championships before his promising career came to a shocking end at the age of 20. 

Yashchenko, who represented USSR, suffered a fatal knee injury that ended his career. One could only imagine the heights Yashchenko could've achieved only if he hadn't suffered from those injuries. He passed away at the age of 40 due to liver cirrhosis, reports World Athletics.

The Polish international, Jacek Wszola, caused a huge upset at the 1976 Olympics. But it was certainly not an upsetting situation for the people back home in Poland.

Wszola took home an Olympic gold medal as the 18-year-old defeated favorite Dwight Stones. A year prior, he had already shown his skills on international stages as he had won gold in European Indoor Championship.

Jacek won his second Olympic medal, a silver in Moscow in 1980, only being bested by Gerd Wessig. Just two months before the Olympics, Wszola made a world record for that time at 2.35 meters. 

After ending his career in 1989, the Polish international decided to turn towards coaching and worked as an athletics coach in his homeland, Sweden and Ireland. Wszola has also worked as a commentator on Polish TV and founded a fitness club called Fitness Klub Gymnasion. 

The Polish high jumper, Artur Partyka, had a career any athlete would want to have; he was sensational from his debut until his retirement. 

The two-time Olympic medalist, Partyka, holds the national record for Poland, clearing a height of 2.38 meters. He debuted on the international stage at 18 and won his first Olympic medal in 1992 in Barcelona. 

He followed the Olympic bronze medal with a silver medal at the 1993 World Championship and later competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, winning silver the second time around.

In 1998 Partyka won gold in both European indoor and outdoor championships and four years later retired in 2002, bringing down the curtains on an illustrious career. 

The Ukrainian International, Bohdan Bondarenko, sits joint third with Patrik Sjoberg for all time highest record at 2.42m.

The 6ft 6 inches high jumper had a great start to his athletic career, leaving his competitions behind as he won the 2008 World U20 Championship. The Ukrainian went on to win gold in the 2013 World Championship, followed by gold in the 2014 Europan Championship.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bondarenko won bronze, only being bettered by Derek Drouin and Barshim. In recent years, Bondarenko has suffered serious injuries, which wiped out his entire season.

But Bohdan continues to persevere and hopes to bring his career back on track. 

Derek Drouin, the Canadian international, began his high jump career when he was in kindergarten. The 32-year-old must be grateful to his teacher who introduced him to the game. 

He made a personal best record of 2.4m in 2014, which is also the Canadian record. The man called the best high jumper of the modern era, Drouin won silver in the 2012 London Olympics. 

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Drouin made his country proud by winning gold in the high jump event, the first ever Canadian to do since Duncan McNaughton in 1932. But winning gold wasn't something new to Drouin as he won a gold a year before in the World Championship.

In recent years, Stefan Holm has traded his high jump skills for a coaching career, but there was a time when Holm's leaps had his opponents on their toes. 

The Swedish international, Stefan, was inspired by his fellow Swedish high jump athlete Patrik Sjoberg and even bettered his idol in the Olympics.

Holm won gold at the 2004 Athens game and silver European and World Championships. He also won a bronze at the European Championship in 2006 and had won gold a year before and a year later in the European Indoor Championship.

Holm's personal best record stands at 2.4 m indoors, and despite his small frame compared to his contemporaries, he is one of the most decorated players of the sport. 

The Texas native Charles Austin's record of 2.39 meters set in 1996 remains the biggest jump made by a high jump athlete in the Olympics.

Charles shares a unique record with the legendary Cuban international Javier Sotomayor, having won gold in the Olympics, Outdoor World Championship, Indoor World Championship, and World Cup Championship.

Having suffered a career-threatening injury early on, Austin powered himself through all of it to become a national treasure of the USA in track and field. He was listed as one of the 100 Greatest US Olympians of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Currently, Austin works as a trainer at So High Sports and Fitness which he opened in 2002 and launched the Total Body Board, fitness equipment in 2014. 

At only 18, the German international Dietmar Mogenburg had already started equaling records with the finest players of the game.

In 1980, the teenager equaled the record of the Polish international Jacek Wszola but couldn't be featured in that year's Olympics due to a boycott led by West Germany. 

But four years later, he left his mark in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as he took home gold. Mogenburg, two years before the Olympics, had won gold at European Championship and also won gold in the Europan Indoor Championship that same year.

Mogenberg ended his career with eight podium finishes at the European Indoor Championships and won one silver medal at the World Indoor Championship. In 1985, the West Germany representative made a record in Indoor Championship with a personal best of 2.39 meters. 

The Swedish international Patrik Sjoberg continues to hold the European record with 2.42m even after 24 years.

Sjoberg won three Olympic medals during his heyday, the first arriving in Los Angeles in 1984. He won two more after that and is tied with Mutaz Barshim with three medals, but unlike the Qatari never won the elusive gold. 

A man known for inspiring young Swedish athletes, Patrik won gold in the 1987 Rome World Championship and has three medals in World Indoor Championships. 

Sjoberg made history in the indoor championship when he recorded a 2.41m jump which was beaten two years later by Sotomayor with 2.43m. The 6ft 6 tall athlete won four gold medals in European Indoor Championship. 

Valeriy Brumel, the late USSR athlete, broke the world record six times between 1961-1963.

Brumel won his first Olympic medal, a silver in the 1960 Rome Olympics at 18. A year after winning his silver medal, Brumel went on to set a record of 2.23 meters.

His personal best of 2.28 meters stood as a world record for seven years before it was bested in 1970.

Brumel took gold in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but a year later, his career halted because of a freak motorbike accident that saw him injure his leg.

The legend of track and field, who had shifted to acting in his later years, took his last breath in a Moscow Hospital in 2003 as he passed away at 60 after suffering from a long-term illness. 

Mutaz Essa Barshim, the pride of Qatar, his name Mutaz in Arabic traslates to "Pride."

The 31-year-old has worn the Olympic medals three times around his neck in his 12 years of an illustrious career. He shared gold in Tokyo and won silvers in the 2012 and 2016 editions of the game.

Barshim also has four world championships medal to his name, with the latest one coming in 2022. Barshim's best record is at 2.43m, and he remains the favorite to beat the record set by Javier Sotomayor at 2.45m.

Despite leaving nothing to win on the field, Barshim remains as hungry as he did when he made his first jump as a teenager. He once revealed that he never keeps any of his honors in the wall and will probably only do so once he has retired from the game. 

Javier Sotomayor is a man who needs no introduction. The first name that comes into the minds of every high jump fan, Sotomayor's 2.45m record is still intact even after three decades.

The Cuban international won his first Olympic medal in 1992, that too, a gold. It was then followed by another gold a year later in World Championship.

One of the most decorated athletes in his field, Sotomayor retired from the sport in 2001, a year after winning his second Olympic Medal in Sydney.

Nowadays, Javier is busy training his son, Jaxier Sotomayor, who is looking to make the same impact as his dad. Jaxier became the u-16 indoor champion in Spain in 2021, the land where his father created history, and won the prestigious Prince de Asturias prize in 1993.