Robert Karl Grabarz (born 3 October 1987) is a retired British

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. Active during the 2010s, with his greatest success coming in two periods between 2012 and 2017. He was the 2012 European champion, the 2012

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

high jump champion and won a shared silver medal in the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, which was upgraded from bronze after disqualification of the original winner,

Ivan Ukhov Ivan Sergeyevich Ukhov (; born 29 March 1986) is a Russian high jumper. He won a gold medal at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and is a two-time European Athletics Indoor Championships, European Indoor champion (2009 and 2011). He was ...

of Russia, for doping in 2021. He failed to figure at the sharp end internationally in 2014 and 2015, but between 2016 and 2017 Grabarz had a significant return to form, as he won World and European silver medals indoors, and European outdoors silver as well as finishing 4th at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

.and 6th at the 2017 World Championships. Domestically, Grabarz was a five-time British champion between 2012 and 2017. Following a troubled start to his 2018 season, Grabarz announced his immediate representative retirement at the age of 30.

Personal life

Grabarz was born in Enfield, England. His grandfather, Ernst Karl Grabarz (1934–2001), emigrated to England from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Robbie attended Crosshall Junior School and Longsands College in

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

, Cambridgeshire, and started a foundation degree programme with

Loughborough College Overview Loughborough College is a large general further education college in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It provides both further education (FE) and higher education (HE) courses on a single campus. The colleg ...

in 2006.

Career

Grabarz finished twelfth at the 2006 World Junior Championships and competed at the 2011 European Indoor Championships, finishing 23rd and failing to reach the final. Grabarz subsequently failed to qualify for the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...

and lost his

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

funding. After this string of poor performances and funding loss, Grabarz "realised I didn't want that disappointment to happen again and I realised it was my decision to make it not happen again." He moved to Birmingham to train and "make a fresh start so I could give 100% of what I have to offer." He secured financial help from the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund and BackleyBlack, the company run by former athletes

Steve Backley Stephen James Backley, OBE (born 12 February 1969) is an English retired track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He formerly held the world record, and his throw from 1992 is the British record. During his career, he was a ...

and

Roger Black Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is an English former athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic Ga ...

. His coach Fuzz Ahmed commented: "If I hadn't found him backing and if he didn't have a credit card, I would have funded him, because that's how much I believed in him. I recognised he had matured into a person that wanted to be a world class high jumper, rather than somebody who was just a very good high jumper." 2012 saw a much improved Grabarz. In January 2012 he made his international breakthrough by jumping 2.34 metres at an indoor high jump gala in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

. His previous best was 2.28m and the jump saw him pass the Olympic 'A' qualifying standard. In June, Grabarz won gold at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

with a jump of 2.31m. He followed this up at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in August, by clearing 2.29 metres in the final to win bronze, in a three-way tie with Canada's

Derek Drouin Derek Drouin (born March 6, 1990) is a Canadian track and field athlete who competes in the high jump. He won gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and was the 2015 World Champion. He also won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 Pan A ...

and Qatar's

Mutaz Essa Barshim Mutaz Essa Barsham (; born 24 June 1991) is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the former Olympic Champion. He is also the former World Champion and second highest jumper of all-time with a personal best of 2.4 ...

. After victories in the Rome and Birmingham

events, Grabarz took the overall

2012 IAAF Diamond League The 2012 IAAF Diamond League (also known as the 2012 Samsung Diamond League for sponsorship purposes) was the third edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 11 May in Doha, Q ...

high jump crown, winning the Diamond Trophy and $40,000 prize money. His personal-best jump is 2.37 metres, a mark set at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting on 23 August 2012, equalling the British men's outdoor record held by Steve Smith since 1992. Grabarz finished joint fourth at the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. He cleared a season's-best height of 2.33 metres, the same height as bronze medallist

Bohdan Bondarenko Bohdan Viktorovych Bondarenko (; born August 30, 1989) is a Ukrainian high jumper. He is the 2013 World champion, 2014 European champion, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist. Bondarenko uses the Fosbury Flop technique, jumping off his right leg ...

, at the first attempt but earlier in the competition he had failed at his first attempt at 2.25 metres, meaning that Bondarenko won the bronze on countback. In May 2018 he announced his retirement, saying that he doesn't enjoy competition anymore. In 2019, Ukhov was stripped of the gold medal by the Court of Arbitration in Sport for doping offences. As a result, two years later, Grabarz was upgraded to the silver medal position, along with Drouin and Barshim. The USA's

Erik Kynard Erik Kynard Jr. (born February 3, 1991) is an American track and field athlete who competes in the high jump. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as a 21-year-old, he won a silver medal in the men's high jump. His silver med ...

, the original silver medallist, was promoted to gold.

International competitions

Diamond League wins

* 2012 - Rome & Birmingham * Won the 2012 Overall Diamond Race High Jump title

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grabarz, Robert 1987 births Living people People from Enfield, London Athletes from the London Borough of Enfield English male high jumpers British male high jumpers Olympic male high jumpers Olympic athletes for Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain European Athletics Championships medalists British Athletics Championships winners New Zealand Athletics Championships winners Diamond League winners English people of Polish descent 21st-century English sportsmen British Diamond League winners