Jacques Freitag

South African high jumper Jacques Freitag had a promising start to his career, winning the World Youth Championships and the World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Freitag had his best result in 2003 when he won gold at the World Athletics Championships, becoming the first South African to win the event. The University of Pretoria named him their Sportsman of the Year and there were high expectations for his performance at the 2004 Athina Olympics. At the Games, however, he failed to advance from the qualifying round, finishing in a disappointing 20th with a best clearance of 2.20 metres. The following year he failed to defend his World Athletics title, again failing to progress past the qualification round.

After his retirement from athletics Freitag lost his job as a coach at the University of Pretoria and later struggled with drug addiction. Tragically, in June 2024, he went missing with his body being found on 1 July in a field in Pretoria. He had been shot and stabbed multiple times.

Personal Best: HJ – 2.38 (2005).