Sara SIMEONI

Sara Simeoni started her high jump career in 1966 at age 13, and in 1969, she changed her style from the 'scissors' to the Fosbury Flop, becoming one of the first women to adopt the new style. Sara built a reputation through her career of always producing something special on the big occasions, often achieving a personal best at major international championships. Although Simeoni only finished ninth at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki, she improved her personal best from 1.76m to 1.78m. Similarly, entering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich with a personal best of 1.80m, she jumped 1.85m to finish in sixth place. By the time of the next European Championships, held in Rome in 1974, Sara had only improved her personal best set at Munich by 1cm to 1.86m.

However, in Rome, she added another 3cms, jumping 1.89m to win the bronze medal behind Rosemarie Ackermann (East Germany). In the high jump final at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, held on 28 July 1976, Simeoni cleared a personal best of 1.91m (see photo above) on her first attempt. Ackermann also achieved this feat, but Simeoni was in the gold medal winning position as the bar was raised to 1.93m, due to a failure by Ackermann at an earlier height. However, only Ackermann was able to negotiate 1.93m, resulting in Sara winning the silver medal.

The following year, in the World Cup in Dusseldorf, Sara finished second, again behind Ackermann, who only the week before had become the first woman to jump 2 metres. Simeoni very much competed in the shadow of Ackermann at this time, but Sara was improving rapidly, increasing her personal best to 1.93m by the end of 1977, and the days of her playing second fiddle to Ackermann were quickly coming to an end. (Ron Casey) 

By the end of 1977, Sara Simeoni was considered the second best high jumper in the world, but she was still very much competing in the shadow of world record holder Rosemarie Ackermann (East Germany), whose personal best of 2.00m was 7cm above Simeoni's. But a gruelling training program which Simeoni underwent that winter started to pay dividends in early 1978. At the Italian indoor championships on 23 February, Sara improved her personal best to 1.97m. In an international meet between Italy and Poland at Brescia on 4 August, Simeoni scaled a new personal best of 1.98m on her second attempt. Sara then had the bar raised to a new world record height of 2.01m, and proceeded to clear it at her second attempt.

The contest between the old and new world record holders at the European Championships in Prague later that month was now eagerly anticipated, and the two combatants certainly didn't disappoint. Their ensuing battle at Prague is better appreciated when one is aware that these were the only two women in history who had ever jumped higher than 1.95m. Ackermann cleared 1.97m on her first attempt to take the lead, as Simeoni had required two tries at that height. Simeoni then assumed the lead after she cleared 1.99m on her first attempt, although Ackermann also cleared this height on her second attempt. Simeoni then put the issue beyond doubt by clearing 2.01m, to equal her newly set world record and win the gold medal.

Two years later, at the Olympic Games in Moscow on 26 July 1980, the two old rivals met again, but this time Simeoni was clearly the favourite as Ackermann had been beset by injuries. Simeoni cleared 1.97m to win the gold medal (see photo above © G H. 26th. July 1980), while Ackermann, in her last major meet, finished only fourth. (Ron Casey)

Sara Simeoni reached the zenith of her high jumping career in 1978, when she set a new world record of 2.01m. During the rest of her career, Simeoni was hampered by a persistent form of tendinitis, which never entirely went away, affecting her training, and forcing her to limit her appearances in competitions. After she won her Olympic gold medal in 1980, Simeoni cleared 1.97m to win the European Indoor Championships in February 1981. Her competitive appearances were scarce in the following outdoor season and in the early part of the 1982 season, but she still managed to win the bronze medal at that year's European Championships in Athens with a height of 1.97m. The extent to which Simeoni suffered from her tendinitis was evident at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, where she could only clear 1.84m in the qualifying round and failed to advance to the final.

One of Simeoni's greatest achievements, which reinforced her reputation of rising to the occasion in major competitions, was at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Plagued by her tendinitis during the 1984 season, Sara had not jumped higher than 1.95m prior to competing in her fourth Olympics. At Los Angeles, on 10 August, Simeoni (see photo above) cleared a seasonal best of 1.97m, and then cleared 2.00m on her first attempt, her first 2 metre clearance since winning the 1978 European Championships six years earlier. Unfortunately for Simeoni, Ulrike Meyfarth (West Germany) won the competition with a 2.02m clearance, but Sara had still won a gallant silver medal. Simeoni's international career came to anticlimactic end at her fifth European Championships in 1986, when she could only manage 1.86m in the qualifying round, and failed to make it to the final. (Ron Casey)