Men's High Jump

The high jump for men has been the part of the Olympics since the inception of the modern games in 1896. The athlete has to jump over a horizontal bar without any assistance.

Rules and Regulations
Specifications set by the International Association of Athletics Federations or the IAAF are applied for the high jump for men in the Olympics.

• The height of the horizontal bar is increased 2 centimeter at every stage.
• Length of the runway in the high jump event should not be less than 15 meter. 20 meter or 25 meter long runway are also used in some competitions.
• The IAAF determines the weight of the crossbar used during the high jump event. Usually the fiber glass is used for making the crossbar.
• The IAAF sets the initial height of the horizontal bar, with which the jump begins.
• For clearing a height, every athlete is given three chances. If an athlete fails in all these, she is disqualified.
• The athlete should not dislodge the horizontal bar in the jump. Or else he is disqualified.
• The IAAF specifies the length and width of the landing area in the high jump event.
• The jumps taken by the athletes should be should be measured perpendicularly from the ground.

Dominating Countries
Athletes from the United States of America and Russia have traditionally dominated the high jump for men in Olympics.

Top Performers
Athletes who have excelled in the high jump event for men in Olympics are Artur Partyka, Troy Kemp, Dragutin Topic, Sergey Malchenko, Gennadiy Avdeyenko, Hollis Conway, Zhu Jianhua, Vyacheslav Voronin, Javier Sotomayor, Andriy Sokolovskyy, Jacques Freitag, Charles Austin, Sorin Matei, Rudolf Povarnitsyn, Igor Paklin, Patrik Sjoberg, Yaroslav Rybakov, Matt Hemingway, Sergey Klyugin, Dick Fosbury, Valeriy Brumel, Charles Dumas, John Winter, Harry Porter, Irving Baxter, Steve Smith, Wolf-Hendrik Beyer, Ralf Sonn, Dietmar Mogenburg, Stefan Holm, and Carlo Thranhardt.