Sara Simeoni (born 19 April 1953) is an Italian former high jumper, who won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics and twice set a world record in the women's high jump.
Sara Simeoni (born 19 April 1953) is an Italian former high jumper, who won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics and twice set a world record in the women's high jump.
Sara Simeoni was born in Rivoli Veronese, in the province of Verona. She soon took up athletics, specialising in the high jump. Her first international result was at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki, where she ended 9th with a 178 cm jump. Her first international success was at the 1976 in Montreal, where she won a silver medal, with a personal best of 1.91 m, and was beaten only by Rosemarie Ackermann's 1.93 m leap.
In August 1978, she set the new world record with 2.01 m in Brescia (this jump stood as a national record until Antonietta Di Martino jumped 2.02 in June 2007). Later in the same month she equalled it at Prague while winning the European title. In 1980, Simeoni set a new Olympic record of 1.97 m, when winning gold in Moscow. [1] Simeoni was the only woman athlete not from a Communist country able to win an athletics gold medal in Moscow.
Simeoni struggled to regain her form in the following years, with a series of tendon injuries. At 1984 Olympics, Simeoni carried the Italian flag at the opening ceremony in Los Angeles. Here, she cemented her reputation as one of the greatest female high jumpers ever, in a thrilling duel with West German Ulrike Meyfarth. Simeoni managed to reach the 2 meters measure for the first time since 1978. The ageing Meyfarth, however, replied with a notable 2.02 m jump, and Simeoni won a silver medal.
Simeoni's other titles include two bronze medals at the European Championships and 25 national titles. Her jump of 2.01 m was the Italian record for women for 29 years. On 8 June 2007, Antonietta Di Martino jumped 2.02 m, establishing the new Italian record for women.
Sara Simeoni is widely considered one of the best Italian female athletes ever. She is married to her coach Erminio Azzaro. [1] Their son Roberto Azzaro is also a high jumper. [2]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | European Junior Championships | Colombes, France | 5th | 1.70 m |
| 1971 | European Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 9th | 1.78 m |
| Mediterranean Games | Izmir, Turkey | 2nd | 1.74 m | |
| 1972 | Olympic Games | Munich, West Germany | 6th | 1.85 m |
| 1973 | European Indoor Championships | Rotterdam, Netherlands | 9th | 1.82 m |
| Universiade | Moscow, Soviet Union | 3rd | 1.81 m | |
| 1974 | European Indoor Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 11th | 1.75 m |
| European Championships | Rome, Italy | 3rd | 1.89 m | |
| 1975 | European Indoor Championships | Katowice, Poland | 4th | 1.80 m |
| Mediterranean Games | Algiers, Algeria | 1st | 1.89 m | |
| Universiade | Rome, Italy | 2nd | 1.88 m | |
| 1976 | Olympic Games | Montreal, Canada | 2nd | 1.91 m |
| 1977 | European Indoor Championships | San Sebastián, Spain | 1st | 1.92 m |
| Universiade | Sofia, Bulgaria | 1st | 1.92 m | |
| World Cup | Düsseldorf, West Germany | 2nd | 1.92 m 1 | |
| 1978 | European Indoor Championships | Milan, Italy | 1st | 1.94 m |
| European Championships | Prague, Czechoslovakia | 1st | 2.01 m | |
| 1979 | World Cup | Montreal, Canada | 2nd | 1.94 m 1 |
| Universiade | Mexico City, Mexico | 3rd | 1.92 m | |
| Mediterranean Games | Split, Yugoslavia | 1st | 1.98 m | |
| 1980 | European Indoor Championships | Sindelfingen, West Germany | 1st | 1.95 m |
| Olympic Games | Moscow, Soviet Union | 1st | 1.97 m | |
| 1981 | European Indoor Championships | Grenoble, France | 1st | 1.97 m |
| Universiade | Bucharest, Romania | 1st | 1.96 m | |
| 1982 | European Championships | Athens, Greece | 3rd | 1.97 m |
| 1983 | World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 19th (q) | 1.84 m |
| 1984 | Olympic Games | Los Angeles, United States | 2nd | 2.00 m |
| 1986 | European Championships | Stuttgart, West Germany | 13th (q) | 1.86 m |
1Representing Europe
She won 25 national championships at individual senior level. [3] [4]
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. Since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth is a German former high jumper. She won the Olympic title twice, in 1972 and 1984. She is the youngest Olympic champion ever in women's high jump, and at the time of her 1984 triumph, she also was the oldest ever.
Rosemarie "Rosi" Ackermann is a German former high jumper, Olympic champion and multiple world record holder. On 26 August 1977 in Berlin, she became the first female high jumper to clear a height of 2 metres.
Trebisonda "Ondina" Valla was an Italian female athlete, and the first Italian woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal. She won it in the 80 m hurdles event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, after establishing the new world record during the semi-final.
Debbie Arden Brill, is a Canadian high jump athlete who at the age of 16 became the first North American woman to clear 6 feet. Her reverse jumping style—which is now almost exclusively the technique of elite high jumpers—was called the Brill Bend and was developed by her when she was a child, around the same time as Dick Fosbury was developing the similar Fosbury Flop in the US. Brill won gold in the high jump at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, and at the Pan American Games in 1971. She finished 8th in the 1972 Summer Olympics, then quit the sport in the wake of the Munich massacre, returning three years later. She won gold at the IAAF World Cup in 1979 and at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. She has held the Canadian high jump record since 1969, and set the current record of 1.99 meters in 1982, a few months after giving birth to her first child.
Blanka Vlašić is a Croatian former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump. She is a two-time world champion and double Olympic medallist who ranks as the joint second highest female jumper of all time with her personal best of 2.08 m. She is the Croatian record holder in the event, and the former indoor world champion.
Tamara Vladimirovna Bykova is a Russian former track and field athlete who represented the Soviet Union and competed in the high jump. She is the 1983 World Champion, the 1987 World Championship silver medallist, the 1988 Olympic bronze medallist, and is a former world record holder, with clearances of 2.03 and 2.04 metres in 1983 and 2.05 metres in 1984. She also won silver medals at the 1982 European Championships, the 1989 and 1991 World Indoor Championships, and three times at the World Cup.
The straddle technique was the dominant style in the high jump before the development of the Fosbury Flop. It is a successor of the Western roll, for which it is sometimes confused.
Ruth Beitia Vila is a retired high jumper who was the 2016 Olympic champion in the women's high jump. She was also a politician in the Partido Popular and a member of the Parliament of Cantabria.
Yordanka Blagoeva is a former Bulgarian high jumper. She competed at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics and finished in 17th, 2nd, 3rd and 16th place, respectively. She won the high jump at the 1965 Summer Universiade and 1973 European Athletics Indoor Championships. On 24 September 1972 she became the first Bulgarian athlete to break a world record. Next year she also set a new indoor high jump record, and was ranked as the best high jumper in Europe.
Antonietta Di Martino is a retired Italian high jumper. She currently holds the Italian national women's high jump record at 2.03 metres for outdoor events and 2.04 metres for indoor events. She also currently holds the women's all-time highest jump-differential, meaning she has jumped the highest more than her own height.
Antonella Capriotti is a retired Italian long jumper and triple jumper.
Sandra Dini is a retired Italian high jumper.
Massimo Di Giorgio is a former Italian high jumper, who won three medals at senior level at the International athletics competitions.
The athletics competition at the 1981 Summer Universiade was held at the National Stadium in Bucharest, Romania, in July 1981. The programme featured 23 events for men and 16 for women. A total of fourteen Universiade records were broken during the 1981 Games.
Alessia Trost is an Italian female high jumper. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in High jump.
Erminio Azzaro is a retired Italian high jumper who won a bronze medal at the 1969 European Championships.
Claudia Testoni, was an Italian hurdler, sprinter and long jumper. She was European champion, in 1938, on 80 metres hurdles. She was born in Bologna and died in Cagliari.
Sharon Hutchings is a former high jumper from Northern Ireland. She won a silver medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh with a lifetime best of 1.90 m.
Italy (ITA) has competed at the European Indoor Athletics Championships since first edition the 1966 European Indoor Games, Italians athletes have won a total of 100 medals.
Related | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
