High Jump Slump

[berkeley]

Does anyone remember a slump as deep or prolonged, measured by depth and quality of performances relative to the world record, as the last 17 years in the men's high jump ?

The throws since better drug enforcement kicked in, and the sprints and long jump after Mexico City, have to be excluded due to special circumstances.

The world record has stood at 2.45 for 11 years (not that unusual), but no-one has ever even equaled the first of Soto's WRs (2.43), set 16 years ago. We have not seen a jump higher than 2.40 in 17 years (3 men did it in the prior 3 years). That's 2.1% short of the record, so the equivalent would be if no-one had broken 9.98 in the 100, 44.08 in the 400, 3:30.29 in the 1500 or 13.18 in the 110H since 1987!

[bf]

Re: High Jump Slump

Maybe the future of this sport is monetary incentivism --- super-wealthy track-fan benefactors who will promise serious payouts for performance. Bill Gates types could support their favorite events with a pay scale that rivals NBA salaries - luring 'failed' hoopsters to go for similar cash just by clearing crossbars.
(Half)Seriously! How many potential 8-footers have we had, all these years? Show 'em the money, and 8' might be what 7' used to be. Same for the gals, of course. But I admit I could be WAY wrong..

[Powell]

Re: High Jump Slump

>The world record has stood at 2.45 for 11 years
>We have not seen a jump higher than 2.40 in 17 >years

There's a bit of a contradiction between the two, wouldn't you say? ;-)

In fact, Vyacheslav Voronin jumped 2.40 in 2000. The last man to jump higher than that was Sotomayor (2.41 in 1994).

[hijumpsteve]

Re: High Jump Slump

I talked of this once before on a different thread, where I said it can sometimes be misleading to key all trend analyses off of world records... better to do it off 10th best each year or something similar.

Yes Soto was really hot as were maybe one or 2 others ( Sjoberg ), but maybe they just were exceptional athletes that were ahead of the curve. The same was true when Brumel was head and shoulders ahead of the field in 1961-1963. His 2.28 ( 7'5.75") stood for 8 years I think but there was no "slump" in overall hjing, it just took that long for the pack to catch up.

I'd like to see an analysis of 10th best hj mark by year for the last whatever years to decide if there is a "slump" but I'm sure not going to do it myself.

[gh]

Re: High Jump Slump

And if the flop and synthetic takeoffs hadn't come along, who knows long Brumel might have been way ahead of the curve.

[berkeley]

Re: High Jump Slump

>The world record has stood at 2.45 for 11 years
>We have not seen a jump
>higher than 2.40 in 17 >years

>There's a bit of a contradiction between the
>two, wouldn't you say? ;-)

>In fact, Vyacheslav Voronin jumped 2.40 in 2000.
>The last man to jump higher than that was >Sotomayor (2.41 in 1994).

Of course I meant "by another jumper" ... and I did say "higher than 2.40". There have been several 2.40 performers in that period.

[berkeley]

Re: High Jump Slump

>And if the flop and synthetic takeoffs hadn't come along, who knows long Brumel
>might have been way ahead of the curve.

... although the first two to beat his record, Matzdorf and Ni, were straddlers. Great as Brumel was, the rest of the world caught up in 8 years. Now, no-one is within shouting distance of Soto after a much longer period.