Chaunté Lowe ( née Howard; born January 12, 1984) is an American athlete who competes in the high jump. A four-time Olympian ( 2004,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

), she is the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2005 World Championship silver medalist and the 2012 World Indoor gold medalist. She initially finished sixth in the 2008 Olympic high jump final, but was promoted to the bronze medal in 2016 after three competitors were disqualified for doping. She is the American record holder in the women's high jump with an outdoor clearance of 2.05 m in 2010, and holds the indoor record with a clearance of 2.02 m in 2012.

Career

Early career

Lowe graduated from

John W. North High School John W. North High School is a public high school in Riverside, California, part of the Riverside Unified School District, and the home of the Huskies. It is an International Baccalaureate school. History John Wesley North High School was establ ...

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

, where she won the National Scholastic Indoor Championships twice. She won the 2001 CIF California State Meet in the high jump and finished second in 2002 in the high jump,

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

and

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

, leading her team to the state team championships. Among her first successes was a high jump bronze medal at the 2003 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships.

2004 Summer Olympics

Lowe jumped 1.85 m in the qualifying round of the women's high jump at the 2004 Summer Olympics and did not reach the final.

2005 IAAF World Championships

In the qualifying round, Lowe tied with

Iryna Mykhalchenko Iryna Mykhalchenko ( uk, Ірина Михальченко; born 20 January 1972) is a Ukrainian high jumper. Biography Mykhalchenko competed in two Olympic Games, finishing fifth in the high jump contest at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She then fi ...

for second in her group with a height of 1.93 m. In the final, Lowe placed second behind Kajsa Bergqvist, who jumped 2.02 m, with a height of 2.00 m.

2008 Summer Olympics

Lowe jumped 1.93 m in the qualifying round at the 2008 Summer Olympics to reach the final. She initially placed sixth in the high jump final with a height of 1.99 m. In late 2016, the International Olympic Committee stripped Russians

Anna Chicherova Anna Vladimirovna Chicherova (russian: Анна Владимировна Чичерова; born 22 July 1982) is a Russian high jumper. She was the gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and origin ...

and Yelena Slesarenko and Ukrainian

Vita Palamar Vita Palamar ( uk, Віта Паламар; born 12 October 1977 in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi, Soviet Union) is a female high jumper from Ukraine. Career Her personal best jump is 2.01 metres, achieved in Zürich in August 2003. She set ...

of their placements ahead of Lowe due to positive tests for banned drugs, resulting in Lowe being awarded the bronze medal for the event.

2009-2010

Competing in 2009, she became the national champion with a clearance of 1.95 m at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, beating Amy Acuff to the title on countback. This gained her qualification into the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

: she reached the 2009 high jump final, but she could not repeat her past medal performance and finished in seventh place. She closed the year with a fourth-place finish at the last edition of the

World Athletics Final The IAAF World Athletics Final was an annual track and field competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was inaugurated in 2003 to replace the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The competition was part of the ...

. Lowe improved her indoor best with a jump of 1.98 m at the

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships in ...

in 2010. She attempted to tie with Tisha Waller's record, but just knocked the bar at the last moment. At the

2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was held between 12 and 14 March at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar. The championships was the first of six IAAF World Athletics Series events to take place in 2010. Bidding and organisation ...

, she won a bronze medal in the high jump with a clearance of 1.98 m. On May 30, 2010, Lowe broke

Louise Ritter Louise Dorothy Ritter (born February 18, 1958) is an American former track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the high jump at the 1988 Olympic Games. Biography Ritter qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete ...

's American record of 2.03 m set in 1988 with a clearance of 2.04 m in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Less than a month later, On June 26, 2010, Lowe improved her record with a clearance of 2.05 m in Des Moines, IA.

2012

Lowe capped a successful 2012 Indoor season by winning the USA Indoor Championship at Albuquerque, NM, on February 26, with a new national record of 2.02m (6' 7.50"): That broke the American indoor, and Championship meet, mark of 2.01 (6' 7.25") established at the 1998 USA Indoor Championship meet by Tisha Waller. Lowe won the competition as the only jumper to clear 1.93 (6'4"), then went on to clear 1.96, 1.99, scaled 2.02 on her third attempt, and made three attempts at 2.04. She set a meet record at the

Drake Relays The Drake Relays (officially the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom) is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', i ...

in April with a jump of 1.98 m. On March 10, she topped this successful indoor season by becoming World Indoor Champion at the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

on in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

being the only one to clear 1.98 m. At the Summer Olympics, she again reached the final and again finished in 6th place, a result she found disappointing because she was one of the favourites.

2014

Back from pregnancy for the 3rd time in 2013, Lowe was the runner-up in the high jump in 1.94 meters at

2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was held at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California. Organised by USA Track and Field, the four-day competition took place June 26–29 in conjunction with the USA Junior Combined Events Outdoo ...

but then was awarded as the winner because

Inika McPherson Inika McPherson (born September 29, 1986, in Port Arthur, Texas) is an American track and field athlete specializing in the high jump. She was the 2013 and 2014 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, US Indoor champion. She also won the women ...

was disqualified for doping. At the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup, Lowe took 2nd place behind Mariya Kuchina (1.99 m) in a season's best of 1.97 m. Lowe won the high jump in 1.91 meters at

2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships were held at Hayward Field, University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. Organized by USA Track and Field, the four-day competition took place June 25–28 and served as the national championships i ...

. Her results were less great as the other years because she needed to help her second daughter who suffers of autism. She participated 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, ...

but failed to clear the first bar at 1.80 m.

2016 : back to the top

During the indoor season, Lowe came back to the great heights and cleared a season's best at 1.95 m in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

. She finished 3rd at the US Indoor Championships with a 1.93 meters' clearance. Back outdoors, she jumped a WL of 1.93 m in February, then won the Ibero-American title with a 1.96 m clearance. On July 3, she qualifies for her 4th Olympic team by winning the 2016 Olympic Trials with 2.01 m, tying her own trials record. She jumped a .

Personal life

She took a year off from competition in 2007 and gave birth to her daughter, Jasmine. Another daughter was born in April 2011. She is married to Mario Lowe, a

er. She graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in May 2008. She is currently attendin
Western Governors University
for her master's degree. In 2019 she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a cancer that affects women of West African ancestry at high rates. She underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy to treat the disease. She was awarded the NCAA Inspiration Award in 2021 for continuing to share her story in order to raise awareness and provide hope for others.

Personal bests

Key: AR = Area record, NR = National record

International competitions

All results regarding high jump

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Chaunte 1984 births Living people American female high jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics African-American female track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets women's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships medalists Track and field athletes from California World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field Western Governors University alumni Diamond League winners USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners World Athletics Indoor Championships winners 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women