Hennadiy Valentynovych Avdyeyenko ( ua, Геннадій Валентинович Авдєєнко) (born November 4, 1963 in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

) is a retired

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 ...

er who represented the

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 later

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. He trained at the Armed Forces sports society in Odessa. Great Olympic Encyclopedia, vol.1-2, Moscow:Olympia Press Publisher, 2006, entry on "Авдеенко", availabl
online
/ref> He won gold medals at both the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and 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, ...

Career

Avdyeyenko entered the 1983 World Championships as an unknown. His personal best was only 2.25 m and he had placed 6th at the main tryout meeting, the 1983

Spartakiad The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

; however, high jump coach

Kęstutis Šapka Kęstutis Šapka (born 15 November 1949) is a retired Lithuanian high jumper who represented the Soviet Union. He was inspired to become a professional high jumper after the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico and became one of the early adopters of ...

and team coach

Igor Ter-Ovanesyan Igor Aramovich Ter-Ovanesyan (russian: Игорь Арамович Тер-Ованесян, born 19 May 1938) is a Ukrainian former competitor and coach in the long jump. Competing for the Soviet Union, he was a five-time European and two-time O ...

lobbied to have him included in the team. In the World Championship final, up against thirteen athletes with bests of 2.30 m or better, Avdyeyenko improved his personal best by 7 centimetres to win an unexpected gold medal, beating the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Tyke Peacock Tyke Peacock (born February 24, 1961) is a retired high jumper from the United States, who is best known for winning the silver medal in the men's high jump event at the inaugural 1983 World Championships. He set his personal best of 2.33 metre ...

on countback. Avdyeyenko placed second at the 1987 World Indoor Championships in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, jumping a new personal best (and Soviet indoor record) of 2.38 m but losing to teammate

Igor Paklin Igor Vasilyevich Paklin (russian: Игорь Васильевич Паклин; born 15 June 1963 in Frunze, Kirghiz SSR) is a retired Kyrgyz athlete who represented USSR and later Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republi ...

in a jump-off. He won another silver medal at the outdoor championships that year, again jumping 2.38 m and tying with Paklin; this time the tie did not have to be broken, as

Patrik Sjöberg Jan Niklas Patrik Sjöberg (; born 5 January 1965) is a Swedish former high jumper. He broke the world record with in Stockholm on 30 June 1987. This mark is still the European record and ranks him third on the world all-time list behind Jav ...

won on countback and the gold medal was thus not at stake. Avdyeyenko then won another gold at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, in the absence of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

holder

Javier Sotomayor Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (; born October 13, 1967) is a Cuban retired track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; hi ...

, whose country boycotted the Olympics. He jumped 2.38 m yet again, and this time he was the only jumper to clear that height. Avdyeyenko graduated from

Odessa Polytechnic Institute Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern sho ...

and worked as an expert in refrigerating equipment.

Major achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Avdyeyenko, Hennadiy 1963 births Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Ukrainian male high jumpers Soviet male high jumpers Living people Armed Forces sports society athletes Olympic athletes of the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Sportspeople from Odesa World Athletics Championships medalists Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics K. D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University alumni