Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's high jump

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Men's high jump
at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
1996 Armenian stamp commemorating 1976 high jump, depicting Jacek Wszoła
VenueOlympic Stadium
DatesJuly 30 and 31
Competitors37 from 23 nations
Winning height2.25 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Jacek Wszoła
 Poland
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Greg Joy
 Canada
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Dwight Stones
 United States
← 1972
1980 →

The men's high jump at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place on July 30 and 31 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada.[1] Thirty-seven athletes from 23 nations competed.[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Jacek Wszoła of Poland, breaking the US/USSR hold on the men's high jump title (no nation other than those two had won since 1948). It was Poland's first medal in the event. Greg Joy's silver was Canada's first medal in the event since 1932. Dwight Stones won his second consecutive bronze medal, becoming the third man to win multiple medals in the high jump and keeping the United States' streak of podium appearances (all 18 editions of the Olympic men's high jump) alive one final time. The Soviet streak of five Games with podium appearances in the event ended.

Background[edit]

This was the 18th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1972 Games were bronze medalist Dwight Stones of the United States and sixth-place finisher István Major of Hungary; the defending champion, Soviet Jüri Tarmak, had retired. Stones was now the best jumper in the world, having broken the world record twice since the previous Games. Jesper Tørring of Denmark, the 1974 European champion, was also competing.[2]

Bermuda, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Saudi Arabia each made their debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 18th time, having competed at each edition of the Olympic men's high jump to that point.

Competition format[edit]

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1912. There were two distinct rounds of jumping with results cleared between rounds. Jumpers were eliminated if they had three consecutive failures, whether at a single height or between multiple heights if they attempted to advance before clearing a height.

The qualifying round had the bar set at 2.00 metres, 2.05 metres, 2.10 metres, 2.13 metres, and 2.16 metres. All jumpers clearing 2.16 metres in the qualifying round advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 jumpers could achieve it, the top 12 (including ties) would advance to the final.

The final had jumps at 2.00 metres, 2.05 metres, 2.10 metres, 2.14 metres, 2.18 metres, 2.21 metres, and every 0.02 metres after that until there was a winner.[2][3]

Records[edit]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Dwight Stones (USA) 2.31 Philadelphia, United States 5 June 1976
Olympic record  Dick Fosbury (USA) 2.24 Mexico City, Mexico 20 October 1968

Jacek Wszoła beat the Olympic record by jumping 2.25 metres.

Schedule[edit]

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round
Friday, 30 July 1976 10:00 Qualifying
Saturday, 31 July 1976 16:30 Final

Results[edit]

Key

  • o = Height cleared
  • x = Height failed
  • = Height passed
  • r  = Retired
  • SB = Season's best
  • PB = Personal best
  • NR = National record
  • AR = Area record
  • OR = Olympic record
  • WR = World record
  • WL = World lead
  • NM = No mark
  • DNS = Did not start
  • DQ = Disqualified

Qualifying[edit]

The qualification was set to 2.16 metres. A total of 14 athletes achieved this height.

Rank Group Athlete Nation 2.00 2.05 2.10 2.13 2.16 Height Note
1 A Jacek Wszoła  Poland o o o 2.16 Q
A Jim Barrineau  United States o o o 2.16 Q
3 A Serhiy Senyukov  Soviet Union o o o o 2.16 Q
B Bill Jankunis  United States o o o o 2.16 Q
5 A Rolf Beilschmidt  East Germany o o o o o 2.16 Q
A Sergey Budalov  Soviet Union o o o o o 2.16 Q
7 B Leif Roar Falkum  Norway o o xo o 2.16 Q
8 B Terje Totland  Denmark o o o xo o 2.16 Q
9 A Greg Joy  Canada o xo xo o 2.16 Q
10 A Dwight Stones  United States o o o xo 2.16 Q
11 A Claude Ferragne  Canada xo xo o o xo 2.16 Q
12 B Jesper Torring  Denmark o o xo xxo 2.16 Q
13 A Rodolfo Bergamo  Italy o o o xo xxo 2.16 Q
14 A Rune Almén  Sweden o o xo xxo xxo 2.16 Q
15 A Endre Kelemen  Hungary xo o xxx 2.13
16 A Guy Moreau  Belgium o xo o xxx 2.13
17 A Walter Boller  West Germany o xo o o xxx 2.13
B Katsumi Fukura  Japan o o xo o x 2.13
19 B Kazunori Koshikawa  Japan o o o xo xxx 2.13
20 A Henry Lauterbach  East Germany o o o xxo xxx 2.13
21 A Danial Temim  Yugoslavia o o o xxx 2.10
22 A Teymour Ghiasi  Iran o xo o xxx 2.10
23 A Wolfgang Killing  West Germany o xxx 2.05
24 B István Major  Hungary o o xxx 2.05
B Juan Carrasco  Spain o o xxx 2.05
B Oscar Raise  Italy o o xxx 2.05
B Paul Poaniéwa  France o o xxx 2.05
28 B Francisco Martín  Spain xo xxx 2.05
29 B Jacques Aletti  France xo xo xxx 2.05
B Marc Romersa  Luxembourg xo xo xxx 2.05
B Richard Spencer  Cuba xo xo xxx 2.05
32 A Riccardo Fortini  Italy o xxo xxx 2.05
A Robert Forget  Canada o xxo xxx 2.05
B Clark Godwin  Bermuda o xxo xxx 2.05
B Carlos Alberto Abaunza  Nicaragua xxx No mark
B Irajá Cecy  Brazil xxx No mark
B Ghazi Saleh  Saudi Arabia xxx No mark
A Bruno Brokken  Belgium DNS

Final[edit]

The rainy weather affected Stones more than anyone else. Two months before the Olympics, he cleared 2.31 metres; five days after the Olympic final, he cleared 2.32 metres. But in the Montreal rain, he failed three times at 2.23 metres. Home crowd hero Joy cleared that height on his final attempt, ultimately gaining silver for it. Budalov tried once unsuccessfully at 2.23 metres before moving on to try 2.25 metres (a very uncommon strategy at that point), failing twice there and settling for fourth place at 2.21 metres. Wszoła, who had not been expected to be a contender, cleared 2.23 metres in his first try. He and Joy each made one jump at 2.25 metres before taking divergent approaches: Wszoła kept at 2.25 metres, passing it on jump #2; Joy went on to 2.27 metres. Each man took two unsuccessful jumps at 2.27, eliminating Joy in second place and leaving Wszoła alone as gold medalist. He used his final attempt at 2.29, with no success.

Rank Athlete Nation 2.00 2.05 2.10 2.14 2.18 2.21 2.23 2.25 2.27 2.29 Height Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Jacek Wszoła  Poland o o o o xo xx– x 2.25 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Greg Joy  Canada o o o xo xxo o xxo x– xx 2.23
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Dwight Stones  United States o o o o xxx 2.21
4 Sergey Budalov  Soviet Union o o o o xo x– xx 2.21
5 Serhiy Senyukov  Soviet Union o o o xxx 2.18
6 Rodolfo Bergamo  Italy o o o xo o xxx 2.18
7 Rolf Beilschmidt  East Germany o o o xo xxx 2.18
8 Jesper Torring  Denmark o xo xo xxx 2.18
9 Terje Totland  Denmark o o xo o xo xxx 2.18
10 Rune Almén  Sweden o xo xo o xxo xxx 2.18
11 Jim Barrineau  United States o o xxx 2.14
12 Claude Ferragne  Canada o o o xxx 2.14
13 Bill Jankunis  United States o xxx 2.10
14 Leif Roar Falkum  Norway xo xxx 2.10

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games: Men's High Jump". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "High Jump, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  3. ^ Official Report, vol. 3, p. 69.

External links[edit]