Elīna Ringa is the first official female pole-vaulter in Latvia and also the first Latvian female national record holder in this event. She won the Latvian National Championship competition outdoors and indoors more than ten times. Elina Ringa was born in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, the capital of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, on 29 September, in 1980.Latvian sports book series: "Vieglatlētikas gadagrāmata" 1997-2009Latvian newspaper "Sports" 1996-2001 The first official record in Latvian athletics for female pole-vault was set by Elina at the Riga Championship in 1996, she vaulted at 2.60 m. The national record was broken by Elina more than 15 times. Her last national record outdoor was 3.72 m, set in 2000 in

Valmiera Valmiera () is the second largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020, it was at 24,879. It is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city, and ...

and indoor - 3,75 m, set in 2001 in

. Her all time personal best is 3,80 m, which she achieved in 2006. She ended her professional athletic career in 2009 after serious ACL injury to her take-off leg, which required surgery. Since summer 2021 Elina participates in masters athletics competitions. In 2022 she won bronze at World Masters Athletics championship in Tampere, Finland for W40 pole vault with result 2,70 m and in 2023 got 3rd place in European Masters Athletics championship in Pescara for W40 pole vault. In December of 2023 Elina jumped 2.80 m.

Result progression

Elina set a new national record for pole-vault with a jump of 3.10 m in

, Latvia in 1996; her personal best at the time. In 1997, at

Hyvinkää Hyvinkää (; , ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Hyvinkää is situated in the northern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Hyvinkää is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in ...

in Finland, she improved upon this by achieving 3.40 m, again setting the National Record. In 2000, in

(a large town in the

Vidzeme Vidzeme (; Old Latvian orthography: ''Widda-semme'', ) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in north-centra ...

of Latvia), she vaulted to 3.72 , setting a new record there as well as improving upon her personal best. In 2006, in the same town, she achieved 3.80 m.

Personal bests in other events

Elina has also competed in other athletic events. In the

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 ...

, her personal best is 1.70 m. In the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

, she has achieved 5.85 m. In

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

events, she has run 100 m in 12.4 seconds, and 60 m in 7.6 seconds.

Education

Instead of attending the

Latvian Academy of Sport Education The Latvian Academy of Sport Education () is an institution of higher education specialising in sport science, located in Riga, Latvia. Organization Departments The Academy has 5 theoretical and 6 practical departments: *Theoretical departments ...

, Elina chose

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

and studied Education Sciences, then, Applied Computer Science. In 2012 she has successfully completed master's degree program in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

( IT field) at Computing faculty. ("Tradition brought to life - University of Latvia, Faculty of Computing Lady Adas Lavleisas birthday party")

Job

Elina has a various work experience. She started as a Teacher of Sports for handicapped children, then she worked as a Teacher of Applied Computer Science and Trainer of Computer courses. A lot of time she worked in IT Support and as IT consultant. Then, she worked as a System Administrator, System Test Analyst, Project Manager and also as IT Solutions Architect. Currently Elina continues to work in IT field. Since 2021, besides her main IT job, Elina is helping with young pole vaulters training in Latvia.

Publications

Elina has written study materials about

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

applications 2000-2007,

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

2000/XP, HTML/CSS,

MOSS 2007 SharePoint is a collection of enterprise content management and knowledge management tools developed by Microsoft. Launched in 2001, it was initially bundled with Windows Server as Windows SharePoint Server, then renamed to Microsoft Office Sh ...

and others. Her book, "Microsoft Excel 2007. Strādāsim ātrāk, ērtāk un efektīvāk!" ("Let's work faster, easier and more efficiently!"), was published by Turiba. and bought by many educational institutions and bookstores.

References

* New link to worldathletics.org profile https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/latvia/elina-ringa-14290071 * Link to Tampere WMA 2022 championship results https://world-masters-athletics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-WMA-Championship-Results.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Ringa, Elina Latvian female pole vaulters 1980 births University of Latvia alumni Living people Athletes from Riga