Aleksandr "Alex" Valeryevich Averbukh ( he, אלכס אברבוך, russian: Александр Валерьевич Авербух; born October 1, 1974) is a retired Russian decathlete and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i Olympic athlete, who competed in the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

. He won silver and bronze medals at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, won a gold medal as the European champion in both

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, and won a gold medal at the

2013 Maccabiah Games The 19th Maccabiah ( he, המכביה התשע-עשרה) were held during July 18 to 30, 2013. The Games brought together 7,500 competing athletes, making it the third-largest international sporting event in the world after the Olympic Games and ...

. His personal best is 5.93 metres.

Biography

He was born in the

Russian SSR Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, and is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He was formerly a

decathlete The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...

competing for

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, but he later became an

i citizen and rose to top level in pole vault. He competed in the

2001 Maccabiah Games The 16th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה16 ישראל תשס"א), the Opening Ceremony was held in Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium, while the re-building process of the collapsed bridge and investigations into the collapse continued. The 16th Mac ...

, winning a gold medal. He won silver and bronze medals at the

and won a gold medal twice as the European champion in

and

. His personal best is 5.93 metres, achieved in 2003 in Madrid. He retired from competition in 2009. He competed on behalf of

Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics Israel competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. This was Israel's fourteenth participation in the Summer Olympics. Israel sent 43 athletes to compete in Beijing, the largest Israeli delegation in Olympic history, with the previous ...

in Beijing, China. He competed in the pole vault at the

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

. In 2013 he briefly returned from retirement to compete in the

, where he won a gold medal for first place. One of his daughters is the model Anastasya Averbukh.

Achievements

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Averbukh, Aleksandr 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Irkutsk Israeli male pole vaulters Russian male pole vaulters Russian decathletes Olympic male pole vaulters Olympic athletes of Israel Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Israel Maccabiah Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 2001 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2013 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Universiade gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for Israel Medalists at the 2001 Summer Universiade Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Israel World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Indoor Championships winners Russian Athletics Championships winners Russian Jews Soviet Jews Jewish male athletes (track and field) Russian emigrants to Israel

Biography

Achievements

See also

References

External links