Brandon Starc (born 24 November 1993) is a professional Australian

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. Starc currently trains in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia, under the guidance of his coach Alex Stewart. As a national representative and high achieving athlete, Starc is supported and represented through the New South Wales and Australian Institutes of Sport. As a 16 year old he won a silver medal at the inaugural

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics ( ta, 2010 கோடைக்கால இளையோர் ஒலிம்பிக் விளையாட்டுக்கள் ms, Sukan Olimpik Belia Musim Panas 2010), officially known as the I Summer ...

in Singapore with a +9 cm personal best of 2.19m. Starc won his first National Senior Athletics Championships title in 2012 with 2.28m, going on to qualify as a finalist at the 2012

World Junior Athletics Championships The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year ...

, Starc has also competed in the finals at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

, the 2015 World Athletics Championships, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. He won the gold medal at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

. Starc qualified for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

placing second in his Group and qualifying for the Olympic final. He placed 5th after jumping a height of 2.33m, just 0.04m short of the shared winners, Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar and

Gianmarco Tamberi Gianmarco Tamberi (born 1 June 1992) is an Italian high jumper, current Olympic champion (2020 Summer Olympics) and World indoor champion (2016). He won the 2021 Diamond League crown, becoming the first ever Italian to do so, and repeated this ...

from Italy.

Early years

Starc attended Lidcombe Public School and started his athletics career at Parramatta Little Athletics. He began to take his high jump achievements seriously and moved to Hills Sports High School. Starc also played cricket (like his elder brother Mitchell Starc) and football, but decided to concentrate on high jumping. At the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, Brandon won silver with a personal best of 2.19m. In 2012, he was placed sixth at the world juniors ahead of his senior debut in 2013 at the world championships.

Achievements

Starc first rose to prominence in the senior international track and field scene when, at 21 yrs of age, he made the high jump final at the

2015 IAAF World Championships The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

, coming a creditable twelfth (the first Australian to contest a major men's high jump final since Tim Forsyth in 1997 at Athens). Moreover, Starc confidently produced a personal best of 2.31 m at his first attempt at that height during the qualifying phase of the competition. At the men's high jump at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

in Rio de Janeiro he achieved a season best of 2.29m in the qualifying stage to make the final. He entered at 2.20m in the final, clearing his second attempt, but did not progress from there. Brandon had a quiet 2021, not qualifying for the 2020 World Championships due to a shin problem, but scaled new heights in 2018. He won his third Australian National title on 17 February with a leap of 2.28m. He set a new personal best of 2.32m in winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Qld, Australia on 11 April. He competed in a couple of events in Japan in May, before a spectacular three month campaign in Europe. He equalled his personal best on 2 July finishing third at the Gyulai István Memorial in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; german: Stuhlweißenburg ), known colloquially as Fehérvár ("white castle"), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the regional capital of Central Transdanubia, and the centre of Fejér ...

, Hungary. He achieved a new personal best of 2.33m winning a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham (GBR) on 18 August 2018. He then set a third personal best for the year and equalled the Australian and Oceania area high jump records of 2.36m (set by Tim Forsyth in 1997) in winning the prestigious annual Eberstadt Internationales Hochsprung (high jump only) meeting in Eberstadt, Germany on 26 August. That is the third highest leap so far in 2018 (as on 1 September). He then won the IAAF Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium, on 31 August, clearing 2.33m. Starc rounded off his 2018 European-summer campaign with a second place leap of 2.30m representing Asia-Pacific in the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava on 8 September 2018.

International competitions

Personal life

Starc is the younger brother of Australian cricketer Mitchell Starc and brother-in-law of Australian women's cricket wicketkeeper

Alyssa Healy Alyssa Jean Healy (born 24 March 1990) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Australian women's national team and New South Wales in domestic cricket, as well as the Sydney Sixers in the WBBL. She made her international debut in Februa ...

. He is married to fellow athlete Laura Turner. He collects sports shoes and is a keen photographer.

References

External links

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Brandon Starc
at Athletics Australia * {{DEFAULTSORT:Starc, Brandon Living people 1993 births Australian male high jumpers Athletes from Sydney Olympic male high jumpers Olympic athletes of Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Australian people of Slovenian descent Diamond League winners Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games