Yaroslav Rybakov of Russia celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's High Jump (© Getty Images)
After collecting silver medals at the 2001, 2005 and 2007 World Championships, Russian Yaroslav Rybakov finally struck gold in Berlin last August.
At 29, a veteran athlete may permit himself to be philosophical. And Rybakov is indeed a breed type of high jumper. He is friendly, handsome and intelligent, but one you’d describe as ‘open’. He is one with himself, always fully concentrated on his main occupation which is, naturally, jumping high.
As is often the case in Russian high jumping, Rybakov is coached by a close relative. His father, Vladimir Rybakov, is a first class specialist in the field and his mother Ludmila was also a member of the Soviet national athletic team, once winning the Cup of the USSR.
But somehow before Berlin, always so close to the victory stand’s top step, the younger Rybakov’s only celebration of a crucial victory came at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow in 2006. He was thus nicknamed the “eternal silver medallist”. That name, one may easily bet, was not something the 1.98m tall Rybakov was too fond of.
He was on the edge of winning several world championships but the eternal second step on the pedestal seemed to be the limit. Why? We think nobody has the answer as to why one of the most consistent athletes in the jumping sector has pieced together such a collection of silver.
One reason, always a concern, is injury. Consistently jumping at heights over 2.30m always means risks. The risk of getting injured. Badly injured. The now late “cosmic” high jumper Valeriy Brumel once confessed that he envied the athletes of the “new” generation, having never had to experience what it meant to land in a rough river of sand. But does one remember a modern high jumper without injuries?
Rybakov is not an exception. It’s quite difficult even for jumper of his stature to earn a berth on the national team. After being selected to Berlin at the Russian Nationals last year, he felt that the situation was disastrous. He experience pain in his Achilles tendon strong enough to force him to miss crucial training prior to Berlin. On the eve of the long awaited World Championships he could neither run nor jump.
And here the All Mighty came to a rescue to one of his strong believers. When in Berlin the pain didn’t go away, the father-son duo managed to get his muscles to respond. He was able to have five or six full training sessions in the run-up to his title.
During Berlin delay, keeps his cool
Rybakov is the man of experience. Nowadays he tries not to spend his energy watching the other contenders jumping for he has the strange feeling that sometimes the mere act of watching adds a hidden force to his rivals so that even the least likely competitors manage to clear and advance. So his aim is to get concentrated on one man in the jumping sector – namely himself. At the major competitions and championships the stress is such that the one striving for victory must absolutely disassociate himself from any additional unnecessary thoughts coming to their tired brain.
In Berlin the weather during the high jump final left much to be desired. The organizers had to postpone the final trials for an hour: it was raining cats and dogs. Nobody even seemed to know when the final would start. Rumours were in the rainy air and in the overcrowded press centre that the final would be at stake only on the following day. And somehow some of the high jumpers lost their concentration. They didn’t know whether to remain prepared for the competition or to go back to their rooms and have a nap prior to the rescheduled final. But Rybakov wasn’t reluctant. He was running and staying loose, and staying focused.
Then it was decided that the jumping show would continue after all in spite of the slippery wet sector. The experienced Russian was fully prepared.
Now Rybakov is at the age of maturity, and an athlete knows what he is striving for.
Nickolai Dolgopolov for the IAAF
