Steve Hooker

Steve Hooker is an Australian former pole vaulter, born on 16 July 1982 in Melbourne, Victoria, who won the Olympic gold medal in the men's pole vault at the 2008 Beijing Games with a clearance of 5.96 metres, an Olympic record. That win made him the first Australian man to take a track and field Olympic gold in forty years, since Ralph Doubell's 800 metres victory in 1968. He added the world title at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin despite a hamstring injury, the world indoor title in 2010 with a championship record 6.01 metres, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold. His personal best of 6.06 metres, set in 2008, places him sixth on the all-time list of pole vaulters. He finished 14th at the 2012 London Olympics and retired in April 2014. His parents were both national-level athletes, and he later entered the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and received the Medal of the Order of Australia.