Brumel

Biography

Brumel began going in for sports at age 12 in Lugansk, coached by P. S. Shtein. At age 16 he cleared 2 m in the high jump. Since the age of 17 he improved skills coached by V. M. Dyachkov in Moscow. In 1960 he broke the USSR record (2.17 m) and made the Olympic Team. At the 1960 Summer Olympics he scored the same result as the winner Robert Shavlakadze, but made more attempts and won the silver.[1] He broke the world record for high jump 6 times from 1961 to 1963 (from 2.23m to 2.28m).[2] He won gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

After going undefeated during the 1965 season, Brumel injured his right leg in a motorcycle accident. Even after undergoing 29 operations, he could never get his career back on track, though he jumped 2.06 m in 1970.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.