Fu Baolu

Fu Baolu was born into a Sino-Russian family and developed an early passion for sports. In 1927, he achieved his first podiums as a sprinter in an inter-school meeting in Harbin. Patronized by his Russian and Chinese physical education teachers he became an excellent pole vaulter. One year later Fu successfully competed in the Northeast China Games for the first time as a junior and one year later in the men’s division. In 1930, he clinched his first national title and was named “King of pole vaulting” at only 17 years of age. This earned him a place on the Chinese team for the 1930 Far Eastern Games. In the following year, Fu set his first national record with 3.54 m. After the Mukden-Incident, he moved to Shanghai, because his home region became part of the Japanese controlled state of Manchukuo. There, he worked for a publisher and bookstore. Before World War II, national championships were only held randomly and Fu won the pole vault on the next two occasions in 1933 and 1935, breaking his own national record both times. In 1934, he competed at the Far Eastern Games in Manila and took second place, one of the first Chinese medals on an international level. Fu also placed first in the trials for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, setting a national record with a jump of 4.15 m, still using the old bamboo poles. At the Olympics, he had to borrow a pole from his Japanese contestants, however, he was one of the few Chinese athletes to qualify for the final round.

Due to his good looks, in 1934 Fu was cast for a part in the movie “Sea Burial” about the hardship of fishermen, appearing in the first of several movies. After the Olympics, he enrolled in the foreign language department of the Jinan-Universität in Shanghai. When his parents tried to persuade him to return to Manchuria (now Manchukuo), he decided to join the Chinese air force. Fu was among the first Chinese pilots to be trained in the United States and became a member of the US-China Air Force Flying Tigers. During a training flight on the new P-40 fighter,the plane crashed near Baishiyi Air Base in Southwest China.

Personal Best: PV – 4.015 (1936).