The men's

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

field event at the

1960 Olympic Games The 1960 Olympics may refer to: *The 1960 Winter Olympics, which were held in Squaw Valley, United States *The 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 19 ...

took place on September 1. Thirty-two athletes from 23 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Robert Shavlakadze Robert Shavlakadze ( ka, რობერტ შავლაყაძე; , 1 April 1933 – 4 March 2020) was a Georgian high jumper. He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in first and fifth place, respectiv ...

of the Soviet Union, the nation's first victory in the men's high jump. Valery Brumel took silver; both men surpassed the previous best placing for the Soviet team of bronze. American John Thomas took bronze to keep alive the United States' streak of medaling in every edition of the Olympic men's high jump.

Background

This was the 14th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1956 Games were gold medalist

Charles Dumas Charles Everett "Charlie" Dumas (February 12, 1937 – January 5, 2004) was an American high jumper, the 1956 Olympic champion, and the first person to clear 7 ft.(2.13 m) Biography Dumas started his jumping career as a student fi ...

of the United States, silver medalist

Chilla Porter Charles Michael "Chilla" Porter (11 January 193615 August 2020) was an Australian athlete and political figure. He won a silver medal in the high jump at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He later served as general secretary of the Liberal P ...

of Australia, fourth-place finisher Stig Pettersson of Sweden, and eleventh-place finisher

Maurice Fournier Maurice Paul Victor Fournier (18 January 1933 – 28 June 2024) was a French high jumper who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics and in the 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () ...

of France. The world record holder, and possibly the odds-on favourite in 1960, was John Thomas of the United States. Valery Brumel of the Soviet Union was considered his biggest challenger; Dumas and the other Soviet athletes (

and

Viktor Bolshov Viktor Bolshov (; born 23 May 1939) is a retired Soviet high jumper. He competed in the 1960 Olympics finishing fourth behind his teammates Robert Shavlakadze, world record holder Valery Brumel and American John Thomas. During the course o ...

) were also outside contenders. Iraq and Tunisia each made their debut in the event; Germany appeared for the first time as the United Team of Germany. The United States appeared for the 14th time, having competed at each edition of the Olympic men's high jump to that point.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1912. There were two distinct rounds of jumping with results cleared between rounds. The qualifying round had the bar set at 1.90 metres, 1.95 metres, and 2.00 metres. All jumpers clearing 2.00 metres in the qualifying round advanced to the final. The final had jumps at 1.90 metres, 1.95 metres, 2.00 metres, 2.03 metres, 2.06 metres, 2.09 metres, 2.12 metres, and then increased by 0.02 metres until a winner was found. Each athlete had three attempts at each height.Official Report, p. 132.

Records

The world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1960 Summer Olympics: Each of the three Soviets matched the Olympic record of 2.12 metres: Valery Brumel,

, and

. John Thomas skipped that height; he joined the three Soviets in all successfully breaking the Olympic record at 2.14 metres. Shavlakadze and Brumel were able to extend the new record further, to 2.16 metres, where it stood at the end of the 1960 Games.

Schedule

All times are

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

)

Results

All jumpers reaching 2.00 metres advanced to the finals. All heights are listed in metres.

Qualifying

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics - Men's high jump M High jump at the Olympics Men's events at the 1960 Summer Olympics