Robbie Grabarz
Robbie Grabarz at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born (1987-10-03) 3 October 1987
Enfield, Greater London, England
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Weight80 kg (176 lb; 12 st 8 lb)[1]
Sport
SportAthletics
EventHigh jump
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place2012 LondonHigh jump
World Indoor Championships
Silver medal – second place2016 PortlandHigh jump
Diamond League
Gold medal – first place2014High jump
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2012 HelsinkiHigh jump
Silver medal – second place2016 AmsterdamHigh jump
European Indoor Championships
Silver medal – second place2017 BelgradeHigh jump

Robert Karl Grabarz (born 3 October 1987) is a retired British high jumper. 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 high jump champion and won a shared silver medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was upgraded from bronze after disqualification of the original winner, Ivan Ukhov of Russia, for doping in 2021.[2]

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.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.[3] Robbie attended Crosshall Junior School and Longsands College in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, and started a foundation degree programme with Loughborough College 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.[4][5] Grabarz subsequently failed to qualify for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and lost his National Lottery funding.[5]

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."[6] He secured financial help from the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund and BackleyBlack, the company run by former athletes Steve Backley and Roger Black. 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."[7]

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.[8] His previous best was 2.28m and the jump saw him pass the Olympic 'A' qualifying standard.[6] In June, Grabarz won gold at the European Athletics Championships with a jump of 2.31m.[9] He followed this up at the 2012 London Olympics in August, by clearing 2.29 metres in the final to win bronze, in a three-way tie with Canada's Derek Drouin and Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim.[10] After victories in the Rome and Birmingham Diamond League events, Grabarz took the overall 2012 IAAF Diamond League high jump crown, winning the Diamond Trophy and $40,000 prize money.[5][7][11]

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.[5]

Grabarz finished joint fourth at the 2016 Olympics. He cleared a season's-best height of 2.33 metres, the same height as bronze medallist Bohdan Bondarenko, 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.[12]

In May 2018 he announced his retirement, saying that he doesn't enjoy competition anymore.[13]

In 2019, Ukhov was stripped of the gold medal by the Court of Arbitration in Sport for doping offences.[14] As a result, two years later, Grabarz was upgraded to the silver medal position, along with Drouin and Barshim. The USA's Erik Kynard, the original silver medallist, was promoted to gold.

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionNotes
Representing  Great Britain
2005 European Junior Championships Kaunas, Lithuania 18th (q) 2.05 m
2006 World Junior Championships Beijing, China 12th 2.05 m
2009 European U23 Championships Kaunas, Lithuania 11th 2.18 m
2011 European Indoor Championships Paris, France 23rd (q) 2.12 m
2012 World Indoor Championships Istanbul, Turkey 6th 2.31 m
European Championships Helsinki, Finland 1st 2.31 m
Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 2nd 2.29 m
2013 European Indoor Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 6th 2.23 m
World Championships Moscow, Russia 8th 2.29 m
2014 World Indoor Championships Sopot, Poland 11th (q) 2.25 m
2015 World Championships Beijing, China 18th (q) 2.26 m
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, Oregon, United States 2nd 2.33 m
European Championships Amsterdam, Netherlands 2nd 2.29 m
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 4th 2.33 m
2017 European Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 2nd 2.30 m
World Championships London, United Kingdom 6th 2.25 m
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 9th 2.20 m
Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 12th 2.18 m

Diamond League wins

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

References

  1. 1 2 "Robert Grabarz". 2012 Summer Olympics official site. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
  2. ↑ ROBERT GBRBARZ, Olympics official website
  3. ↑ Turnbull, Simon (26 January 2012). "Britain's Robbie Grabarz on top of the world despite losing Lottery". The Independent.
  4. ↑ Robbie Grabarz at World Athletics
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hart, Simon (26 August 2012). "Robbie Grabarz looking to follow Olympic high jump bronze with bumper pay-day". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  6. 1 2 "London 2012: Robbie Grabarz makes Olympic 'sacrifice'". BBC Sport. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  7. 1 2 "London 2012: Robbie Grabarz will need 'unbelievable' rivals". BBC Sport. 7 June 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  8. ↑ Bock, Peter (21 January 2012). "2,34-Meter-Satz besiegelt das Ende in Wuppertal" (in German). DLV.
  9. ↑ "Robbie Grabarz and Rhys Williams win European gold". BBC Sport. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  10. ↑ "Olympics high jump: Robbie Grabarz wins bronze for GB". BBC Sport. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  11. ↑ "Grabarz Takes Diamond Crown". Team GB. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  12. ↑ Plant, Darren (17 August 2016). "Result: Robert Grabarz fourth in Olympic high jump final". Sports Mole. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Robbie Grabarz: Olympic high jump bronze medallist retires". BBC. 17 May 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  14. ↑ "THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT (CAS) ISSUES DECISIONS IN 12 FIRST-INSTANCE DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES CONCERNING RUSSIAN TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES" (PDF). 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
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