Brandon Starc (born 24 November 1993) is a professional Australian high jumper. Starc currently trains in Sydney, Australia, under the guidance of his coach Alex Stewart. As a national representative and high achieving athlete, Starc is supported and represented through the New South Wales and Australian Institutes of Sport. As a 16 year old he won a silver medal at the inaugural

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics ( ta, 2010 கோடைக்கால இளையோர் ஒலிம்பிக் விளையாட்டுக்கள் ms, Sukan Olimpik Belia Musim Panas 2010), officially known as the I Summer ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

with a +9 cm personal best of 2.19m. Starc won his first National Senior Athletics Championships title in 2012 with 2.28m, going on to qualify as a finalist at the 2012 World Junior Athletics Championships, Starc has also competed in the finals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 World Athletics Championships, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. He won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Starc qualified for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

placing second in his Group and qualifying for the Olympic final. He placed 5th after jumping a height of 2.33m, just 0.04m short of the shared winners,

Mutaz Essa Barshim Mutaz Essa Barshim ( ar, معتز عيسى برشم, Muʿtazz ʿĪsā Baršim; born 24 June 1991) is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the current Olympic Champion (2020). He is also the current World Champion ...

from Qatar and

Gianmarco Tamberi Gianmarco Tamberi (born 1 June 1992) is an Italian high jumper, current Olympic champion (2020 Summer Olympics) and World indoor champion (2016). He won the 2021 Diamond League crown, becoming the first ever Italian to do so, and repeated this ...

from Italy.

Early years

Starc attended

Lidcombe Lidcombe is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lidcombe is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Cumberland Council, with a small industrial part in the north ...

Public School and started his athletics career at

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

Little Athletics Little Athletics is an Australian activity program that involves modified athletics events for children aged 3 to 16 in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory); 3 ...

. He began to take his high jump achievements seriously and moved to Hills Sports High School. Starc also played cricket (like his elder brother

Mitchell Starc Mitchell Aaron Starc (born 30 January 1990) is an Australian international cricketer who plays for the Australian national team and New South Wales in domestic cricket. A left-arm fast bowler and a lower order left-handed batsman, Starc repres ...

) and football, but decided to concentrate on high jumping. At the inaugural

Youth Olympic Games The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is an international multi-sport event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consiste ...

in 2010, Brandon won silver with a personal best of 2.19m. In 2012, he was placed sixth at the world juniors ahead of his senior debut in 2013 at the world championships.

Achievements

Starc first rose to prominence in the senior international track and field scene when, at 21 yrs of age, he made the high jump final at the 2015 IAAF World Championships, coming a creditable twelfth (the first Australian to contest a major men's high jump final since

Tim Forsyth Tim Forsyth (born 17 August 1973 in Mirboo North, Victoria, Australia) is a retired Australian three-time Olympic high jumper: 1992, 1996, and 2000). Forsyth's first success on the international scene came in 1990 with a silver medal ...

in 1997 at Athens). Moreover, Starc confidently produced a personal best of 2.31 m at his first attempt at that height during the qualifying phase of the competition. At the men's high jump at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

he achieved a season best of 2.29m in the qualifying stage to make the final. He entered at 2.20m in the final, clearing his second attempt, but did not progress from there. Brandon had a quiet 2021, not qualifying for the 2020 World Championships due to a shin problem, but scaled new heights in 2018. He won his third Australian National title on 17 February with a leap of 2.28m. He set a new personal best of 2.32m in winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Qld, Australia on 11 April. He competed in a couple of events in Japan in May, before a spectacular three month campaign in Europe. He equalled his personal best on 2 July finishing third at the

Gyulai István Memorial The Gyulai István Memorial is an annual track and field meet that takes place at Bregyó közi Regionális Atlétika Központ in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. It was first held in 2011 at the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in Budapest. The meeting is curr ...

in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. He achieved a new personal best of 2.33m winning a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham (GBR) on 18 August 2018. He then set a third personal best for the year and equalled the Australian and Oceania area high jump records of 2.36m (set by

in 1997) in winning the prestigious annual Eberstadt Internationales Hochsprung (high jump only) meeting in Eberstadt, Germany on 26 August. That is the third highest leap so far in 2018 (as on 1 September). He then won the IAAF Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium, on 31 August, clearing 2.33m. Starc rounded off his 2018 European-summer campaign with a second place leap of 2.30m representing Asia-Pacific in the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava on 8 September 2018.

International competitions

Personal life

Starc is the younger brother of Australian cricketer

and brother-in-law of Australian women's cricket wicketkeeper

Alyssa Healy Alyssa Jean Healy (born 24 March 1990) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Australian women's national team and New South Wales in domestic cricket, as well as the Sydney Sixers in the WBBL. She made her international debut in Februa ...

. He is married to fellow athlete Laura Turner. He collects sports shoes and is a keen photographer.

References

External links

*
Brandon Starc
at

Athletics Australia Athletics Australia is the national sporting organisation (NSO) recognised by Sport Australia for the sport of athletics in Australia. First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 registered ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Starc, Brandon Living people 1993 births Australian male high jumpers Athletes from Sydney Olympic male high jumpers Olympic athletes of Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Australian people of Slovenian descent Diamond League winners Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games