Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's high jump

Updated on Nov 01, 2023

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Venue Olympic Stadium Competitors 44 from 28 nations		Date 14–16 August 2016 Winning height 2.38 m

The men's high jump competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was held at the Olympic Stadium between 14–16 August.

Summary

Forty-four athletes competed in the qualification round, all, save for one, having achieved the Olympic qualifying mark of 2.29 m. Eleven of those competitors cleared 2.29 m to advance to the final, with an additional four who jumped 2.26 m also advancing.

The 2012 Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov was absent as a result of the Russian team's ban for doping. Another major absence, due to injury, was Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi who ranked second in the world and had won the 2016 World Indoor Championships. The top ranked athlete with 2.40 m was Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim, who won the 2012 Olympic bronze medal and had previously jumped 2.43m in competition in 2014, the second-highest clearance in history. Derek Drouin of Canada, who shared the 2012 bronze with Barshim, was ranked third in the world in 2016 and was the winner at the 2015 World Championships. The 2015 silver and bronze medallists Bohdan Bondarenko and Zhang Guowei, American Olympic medallist Erik Kynard, and 31-year-old Donald Thomas of the Bahamas (ranked fourth), also qualified for the event. All those athletes, save for Zhang, advanced to the final.

The opening height in the final was 2.20 m. Of the 15 men who qualified for the final, two failed to clear the next height, 2.25 m, and a further three were eliminated at 2.29 m. Six athletes remained clean through 2.29 m, having no misses on any of their attempts (though Bondarenko passed at the height). At 2.33 m, five competitors cleared on their initial attempt, four were eliminated and six remained in the competition. Barshim, Drouin, and Bondarenko remained clean at 2.33 m; Robert Grabarz and Andriy Protsenko also cleared 2.33 m on their first attempts, but both men had a single miss at earlier heights and were tied for fourth. Erik Kynard was in sixth place after taking three attempts to get over 2.33 m. Barshim and Drouin remained perfect at 2.36 m; Grabarz, Protsenko and Kynard were unable to advance while Bondarenko passed at the height. Barshim, Drouin and Bondarenko were now guaranteed medals, as Barshim and Drouin were the only ones over 2.36 m, and Bondarenko had fewer misses in the competition than the three others (besides Drouin, Barshim and himself) who had cleared 2.33 m. With the bar now set at 2.38 m (7 ft 9 ¹⁄₂ in) , Drouin cleared on his first attempt. Bashim was unable to clear 2.38 m after three attempts, and was eliminated. Bondarenko failed twice to clear at the height and, following Barshim's second failure, he elected to pass his third attempt. With the bar raised to an Olympic-record height of 2.40 m, he hoped to clear and take the lead from Drouin, but he had only a single attempt. Jumping before Drouin, he failed at his attempt and Drouin won the competition, securing Canada's first gold medal in the event since 1932. Having won the gold medal, Drouin elected to attempt the height and thus set a new Olympic record. His single attempt was a failure and he decided to retire from the competition. Barshim received the silver medal and Bondarenko received the bronze.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete had three attempts at each height and was eliminated if they had three consecutive failed attempts, either at one height, or over two (or even three) heights if they chose to pass after one or two failures at one height. Athletes who successfully jumped the qualifying height moved on to the final. If fewer than 12 reached that height, the best 12 moved on. Cleared heights reset for the final, which followed the same three-attempts-per-height format until all athletes recorded three consecutive failed attempts, save for the victor who could opt not to make any more attempts.