Briey
Briey (; german: Brietz) is a former commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in northeastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val de Briey.French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
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 ...
er. On 17 July 1980 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, Houvion jumped 5.77 metres, beating the
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 ...
of
Thierry Vigneron
Thierry Vigneron (born 9 March 1960 in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine) is a retired French pole vaulter. In the 1980s, he was among the world's leading pole vaulters. He broke the world record in the event four times and was the last man to hol ...
by two centimetres. The record only lasted until 30 July 1980, when
Władysław Kozakiewicz
Władysław Kozakiewicz (born 8 December 1953) is a retired Polish athlete who specialised in the pole vault. He is best known for winning the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and the bras d'honneur gesture which he showed to th ...
of Poland jumped 5.78 metres in Moscow. Houvion was born in
Briey
Briey (; german: Brietz) is a former commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in northeastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val de Briey.Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.Maurice Houvion, after being talked out of a career in
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...