High Jump, Men

By now, defending silver medalist Valery Brumel was the best jumper in the world, having broken the world record six times between 1961 and 1963. He had dominated the 1962 European Championships, winning with 2.21 (7-3). The next best jumper was American John Thomas, who had been the heavy favorite in 1960, but won a disappointing bronze. Since 1960, Brumel had defeated Thomas at 8 of 9 meets. The Tokyo high jump event was much closer than expected, however, as Brumel did not win easily. In fact, he and Thomas jumped the same height, 2.18 (7-1¾), but Brumel won on the countback. He and Thomas had both needed three attempts at 2.14 (7-0¼), but those had been Brumel’s only misses. Thomas had a total of four misses, the next tie-breaker, needing two attempts at 2.12 (6-11½) and 2.16 (7-1), and had to settle for the silver medal.

Brumel was severely injured in 1965 in a motorcycle accident, sustaining a comminuted open fracture of his right tibia. He underwent several operations, but the tibia would not heal. Finally, it was healed after placement of an unusual external fixation frame, placed by Soviet orthopaedist Gavriil Ilizarov, who had pioneered what became known as the Ilizarov device, variants of which are now standard orthopaedic treatments. But Ilizarov became famous for his treatment of Brumel. After his injury, Brumel received a letter from John Thomas essentially telling him to hang in there, and telling him that he hoped he would return to jump again. In fact, Brumel did compete again, getting back up as high as 2.13 (6-11¾) in 1970, but was never again the world’s dominant jumper. Even today, he is often considered the greatest high jumper ever.