2000 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Women
Attendees	30 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Stadium Australia
Competition phase	September 23, 2000 (qualification) September 25, 2000 (final)
Medalists Stacy Dragila ( USA )   Tatiana Grigorieva ( AUS )   Vala Flosadóttir ( ISL )

The women's pole vault at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney was held on September 23-25, 2000 at Stadium Australia . Thirty athletes took part in the Olympic premiere of this discipline of women's athletics.

The first Olympic champion was the American Stacy Dragila . She won ahead of the Australian Tatiana Grigorieva and the Icelandic Vala Flosadóttir .

With Yvonne Buschbaum and Nicole Humbert , two Germans took part in the competition, both of whom reached the final. Humbert came in fifth, Buschbaum in sixth.
The Austrian Doris Auer also qualified for the final. She finished ninth.
Athletes from Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Title holder

Olympic champion 1996	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held
World Champion 1999	Stacy Dragila ( USA )	4.60 m	Seville 1999
European Champion 1998	Anshela Balachonova ( Ukraine )	4.31 m	Budapest 1998
Pan American Champion 1999	Alejandra García ( Argentina )	4.30 m	Winnipeg 1999
Central America and Caribbean champion 1999	Alejandra Meza ( Mexico )	3.75 m	Bridgetown 1999
South America Champion 1999	Alejandra García ( Argentina )	4.30 m	Bogotá 1999
Asian Champion 2000	Takayo Kondo ( Japan )	4.00 m	Jakarta 2000
African champion 2000	Syrine Balti ( Tunisia )	3.85 m	Algiers 2000
Oceania Champion 2000	Nikki Beckett ( New Zealand )	3.20 m	Adelaide 2000

Existing records

World record	4.63 m	Stacy Dragila ( USA )	Sacramento , USA	July 23, 2000
Olympic record	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held

Remarks:

• All times are based on Sydney local time ( UTC + 10 ).
• All heights are given in meters (m).

qualification

September 23, 2000, 6:00 p.m.

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification height for direct entry into the final was 4.40 m. None of the participating jumpers even approached this height, as it became clear that a jumped 4.40 m was enough to qualify for the final. Thirteen athletes (highlighted in light green) reached the final.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	4.00	4.15	4.25	4.30	height	annotation
1	Anshela Balachonova	Ukraine	-	-	-	O	4.30	OR
	Daniela Bártová	Czech Republic	O	-	O	O
	Tatiana Grigorieva	Australia	-	O	O	O
	Nicole Humbert	Germany	-	O	-	O
5	Marie Rasmussen	Denmark	O	xo	O	O	4.30	OR / NO
6th	Stacy Dragila	United States	-	O	O	x o	4.30	OR
7th	Monika Pyrek	Poland	O	O	xxo	x o	4.30	OR
8th	Caroline Ammel	France	O	O	xxx		4.15
9	Alejandra García	Argentina	xo	O	xxx		4.15
10	Janine Whitlock	Great Britain	xxo	O	xxx		4.15
11	Þórey Edda Elísdóttir	Iceland	O	xxx			4.15
ogV	Svetlana Feofanova	Russia	-	xxx				without height
	Elena Isinbayeva	Russia	xxx
	Tania Kolewa	Bulgaria	xxx
	Zsuzsanna Szabó	Hungary	-	xxx

Group B

space	Surname	nation	4.00	4.15	4.25	4.30	height	annotation
1	Vala Flosadóttir	Iceland	O	O	O	O	4.30	OR
	Kellie Suttle	United States	O	O	O	O
3	Yvonne Buschbaum	Germany	-	xo	O	O	4.30	OR
	Gao Shuying	People's Republic of China	O	O	xo	O
	Elmarie Gerryts	South Africa	O	O	xo	O
6th	Doris Auer	Austria	-	O	xxo	xx o	4.30	OR
7th	Melissa Mueller	United States	O	O	O	xxx	4.25
8th	Emma George	Australia	-	O	xx o	xxx	4.25
	María del Mar Sánchez	Spain	O	O	xx o	xxx
10	Marie Poissonier	France	xo	O	xxx		4.15
11	Deborah Gyurcsek	Uruguay	O	xx o	xxx		4.15
12	Pavla Hamáčková	Czech Republic	O	-	xxx		4.00
ogV	Elena Belyakova	Russia	-	xxx				without height
	Katalin Donath	Hungary	xxx
	Thaleia Iakovidou	Greece	xxx

• 

  The Argentine Alejandra García retired with 4.15 m as ninth of their qualifying group

• 

  The Russian Jelena Isinbayeva remained without a valid attempt and was eliminated from the qualification

• 

  The Hungarian Zsuzsanna Szabó failed in the qualification at her starting height and was eliminated

• 

  Pavla Hamáčková from the Czech Republic was twelfth in her qualifying group with 4.00 m and did not reach the final

final

September 25, 2000, 6:00 p.m.

Thirteen athletes had qualified for the final: two German and two US-Americans as well as one participant each from Australia, China, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Poland, South Africa, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine.

After the former Australian world record holder Emma George was unable to qualify for the final due to an injury, the US world champion and world record holder Stacy Dragila was the clear favorite. Her strongest competitors were vice world champion Anzhel Balachonova from Ukraine and the Australian World Cup third Tatiana Grigorieva. But other finalists were also to be expected. Especially in this new discipline, which was also held for women for the first time at the Olympic Games, surprises were certainly possible.

The sixth raised in the final was 4.45 m. Up to this point six athletes had dropped out. The Polish Monika Pyrek and the German Yvonne Buschbaum tore the bar three times, so that there were now five jumpers in the competition: the Icelandic Vala Flosadóttir without fail, Grigorieva and Dragila with one failed jump each, the Czech Daniela Bártová with four and the German Nicole Humbert with them eight failed attempts. The next height of 4.50 m was taken by Bártová and Flosadóttir in the first jump, while Humbert skipped this height. Grigorieva needed two, Dragila three attempts for 4.50 m. At 4.55 m, Humbert, Bártová and Flosadóttir were eliminated. This was the first medal decision: Vala Flosadóttir won bronze due to the lowest number of unsuccessful attempts, Daniela Bártová came fourth and Nicole Humbert fifth.

Grigorieva and Dragila made the fight for the first gold pole vault medal between themselves. Grigorieva jumped 4.55m on the first attempt, Dragila on the second. The US athlete crossed the next height of 4.60 m with her first jump, Grigorieva had a failed attempt and took her two remaining jumps with her to the next height of 4.65 m. Both athletes failed here. Thus Stacy Dragila was the first female Olympic champion in the women's pole vault, Tatiana Grigorieva won the silver medal.

Vala Flosadóttir was the first woman in Iceland to win an Olympic medal.

Daniela Bártová from the Czech Republic was one of the few Olympians who competed in various sports. Bártová started gymnastics in 1992 in Barcelona for what was then Czechoslovakia.

space	Surname	nation	4.00	4.15	4.25	4.35	4.40	4.45	4.50	4.55	4.60	4.65	Bottom line	annotation
1	Stacy Dragila	United States	-	-	O	O	xo	O	xxo	xo	O	xxx	4.60	OR
2	Tatiana Grigorieva	Australia	-	xo	O	O	O	O	xo	O	x-	xx	4.55
3	Vala Flosadóttir	Iceland	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	xxx			4.50	NO
4th	Daniela Bártová	Czech Republic	O	-	O	xxo	-	xxo	O	xxx			4.50
5	Nicole Humbert	Germany	-	xxo	xxo	xxo	-	xx o	-	xxx			4.45
6th	Yvonne Buschbaum	Germany	-	-	xo	O	x o	xxx					4.40
7th	Monika Pyrek	Poland	xo	xxo	O	O	x o	xxx					4.40	NO
8th	Marie Rasmussen	Denmark	O	O	O	O	xxx						4.35	NO
9	Doris Auer	Austria	-	-	O	xxx							4.25
10	Gao Shuying	People's Republic of China	O	O	xxx								4.15
11	Kellie Suttle	United States	O	xxx									4.00
ogV	Anshela Balachonova	Ukraine	-	-	xxx									without height
	Elmarie Gerryts	South Africa	xx-

• 

  Olympic champion Stacy Dragila from the USA

• 

  Monika Pyrek from Poland was seventh in the final

Web links

• SportsReference Pole Vault , accessed April 14, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website , accessed April 14, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIth Olympiad, Results , English / French (PDF, 17,708 MB), accessed on April 14, 2018

Video

• 2000 Womens Pole Vault , published July 11, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed April 14, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 798 , accessed on April 14, 2018