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)
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