Sergey Bubka Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 1991

Pole vaulter Sergey Bubka (Lugansk, Ukraine, USSR, 1963 - ) has achieved everything in his sporting specialty: Olympic champion in 1988 and world champion in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997 with 35 records to his credit (17 outdoor and 18 indoor). At the age of eleven, he had already cleared a height of 2.70 m. He was proclaimed junior and absolute European champion in Stuttgart in 1986. He broke the world record several times on both indoor and outdoor tracks.

He held the world record of 6.15 metres, established indoors on 21st February 1993 in Donetsk (Ukraine), for almost 21 years until the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie surpassed his record by one centimetre at the same meeting and in the same stadium, leaving the world record at 6.16 metres. He is still in possession of the outdoor world record with a vault of 6.14 meters established in Sestriere (Italy) on 31st July 1994. His technique consisted in taking 22 strides as if he were a sprinter and an impeccable swing up and turn on the bar.

He retired from competition in 1997 due to multiple heel injuries. Following his retirement, he has pursued a career as a sports leader, representative of athletes before the International Olympic Committee and parliamentarian in his native country.

• World Champion in Helsinki 1983, 5.70 m
• World Champion in Rome 1987, 5.85 m
• World Champion in Tokyo 1991, 5.92 m
• World Champion in Stuttgart 1993, 6.00 m
• World Champion in Gothenburg 1995, 5.92 m
•  World Champion in Athens 1997, 6.01 m