Robison "Robbie" Pratt (born February 25, 1980) is an Olympic pole vaulter and an NCAA national champion.

Early life

Pratt was born in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia to Elbert Pratt and Anne Hinton Pratt. He was named after the Brigham Young University coach, Clarence Robison, for whom his father competed in 1974 as a

decathlete The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...

. Pratt moved to Dublan, near

Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...

, Mexico when he was two years old, and gained Mexican citizenship. At age thirteen, he moved to El Paso, Texas, where he began participating in track and field. His father, Elbert, is a professional coach and saw to it that he and his four younger siblings all learned to pole vault. Pratt started serious training at age sixteen, and he won his first pole vaulting medal at age seventeen when he placed first at the Pan American Junior Championships in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. Early in his career and up until after the Olympics, Pratt was coached by his father, Elbert Pratt, and by Yuri Volkov and Valeri Karapetov. While at Brigham Young University, he was coached by Larry Berryhill from 2003–2004 and by Jeremy Bailey from the fall of 2004–2006. Bailey continued to coach Pratt throughout his professional career. Soon after winning the Pan American Junior Championships at seventeen, Pratt sustained a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

, which was incurred unrelated to his vaulting. He was hospitalized for two weeks and was unable to vault for eight months. At age nineteen, Pratt returned to competition and broke the Mexican Junior National Record six times, finishing the season with a personal best of .

2000 Olympic Games

With a height of , Pratt was among the tallest international pole vaulters. He qualified for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

with another personal best of . At the Olympics, Pratt represented Mexico, the country where he had lived the longest. Being only twenty years old, he was the youngest vaulter, and he finished the competition as a semi-finalist. Immediately after the Olympics, Pratt withdrew from competitive sports for two years. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), he volunteered for a mission preaching the gospel of Christ and serving the people in Torreón, Mexico.

Brigham Young University and professional career

In 2003, Pratt began school at Brigham Young University. That year, he was the Mountain West Conference Champion and a finalist in the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

in the Dominican Republic. In 2004, he married Lisa Antonelli, a fellow BYU track athlete and All-American. In 2005, he became the NCAA National Champion and a finalist in the

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

in İzmir, Turkey. In 2006, Pratt jumped a personal best of and finished the indoor season with a world ranking of sixteenth, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations. He was the runner-up in both the indoor and outdoor NCAA National Championships, and he claimed his first senior title in a major international championship by winning the Central American and Caribbean Games, breaking the Games record in the process. Additionally, he was named to the 2006 IAAF World Cup Team to represent the Americas, where he finished in ninth place. In 2007, Pratt became a semi-finalist at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan and a finalist in the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Robison 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Chihuahua (state) Mexican male pole vaulters Olympic athletes for Mexico Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games competitors for Mexico Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 Pan American Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Mexico BYU Cougars men's track and field athletes Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Mexico Competitors at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners