Thomas Michael Zacharias (born 2 January 1947) is a German high jumper. He competed in the 1968 Olympics and finished in 14th place with a jump of 2.09 m. He set five national records (2.17 to 2.20 in 1970). His personal best is 2.22 m (world's best indoor 1971). Zacharias continues competing internationally, in the masters categories, where he set dozens of world records. Two of them, 2.00 m indoor and 1.98 m outdoor in the M50 age group, have stood since 1997. Zacharias is a lifelong proponent of the

straddle technique The straddle technique was the dominant style in the high jump before the development of the Fosbury Flop. It is a successor of the Western roll, for which it is sometimes confused. Unlike the scissors or flop style of jump, where the jumper ...

in the high jump. (i) = indoors, WR = world record, ER = European record, NR = national record

Biography

Zacharias was born to Hella and

Helmut Zacharias Helmut Zacharias (27 January 192028 February 2002) was a German violinist and composer who created over 400 works and sold 14 million records. He also appeared in a number of films, usually playing musicians. Early life Helmut Zacharias was bor ...

. His father (died 2002) was a famous violin player, composer and orchestra director, his sister Sylvia holds a PhD in

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

, and his brother Stephan is a composer and music producer for film and television. Zacharias has a son, Alejandro, and daughter Cristina, with Lola López, a sports teacher. Zacharias completed his school studies in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

(Germany),

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

(Italy) and

Ascona 300px, Ascona Ascona ( ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yearly Ascona Jazz Festival. ...

(Switzerland). He continued his education in Paris, Berlin and

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, studying philosophy and psychology, but majoring in physical education, and since the 1980s has lived on

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

, one of the Canary Islands. In the 2000s, besides competing in the high jump and being a track and field coach, he became a specialist in golf biomechanics and tuition and published two books on the subject. In 1999–2002 he worked as a psychologist with the national golf amateur team and in 2002-2008 was instruction advisor to the PGA of Germany.

Books

* * *Thomas Zacharias (1997) ''Hoch- und Weitsprung Perfekt'', Nentershausen *Thomas Zacharias (2007) ''Golfprofis schwingen nicht – sie schlagen: Die richtige Technik verstehen und erlernen''. Kosmos. *Thomas Zacharias (2011) ''Der neue Golfschlag''. Kosmos.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zacharias, Thomas 1947 births Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for West Germany German male high jumpers Athletes from Lower Saxony West German Athletics Championships winners 20th-century German sportsmen