Sergey Bubka set 35 pole vault world records between 1984 and 1994: 17 outdoor and 18 indoor. His outdoor best was 6.14 m (20 ft 1.5 in), cleared at altitude in Sestriere on July 31, 1994, and it stood for 20 years until Renaud Lavillenie broke it in 2014. His indoor best, 6.15 m in Donetsk, stood even longer, 21 years, before Lavillenie passed that one too. Bubka was the first man to clear 6 meters, in Paris in 1985, and he did it 45 times over his career, a number no other vaulter has come close to matching. No one in the sport's history has set more world records at a single event, and given how rarely marks get broken now, that record inside the record may never fall. The height record itself has since moved again. Armand Duplantis cleared 6.31 m in Uppsala on March 12, 2026, his 15th career world record and well past anything Bubka ever managed. Below is the actual progression, plus how the two eras compare.
Bubka cleared 6.00 m on July 13, 1985, in Paris, becoming the first man in history to clear 6 meters. He went on to clear that height 45 separate times across his career, an oddly specific number that shows how far ahead of the field he was for a decade. No other vaulter got within 20 centimeters of him outdoors until the late 1990s. The clearance is still treated as the line between the pre-Bubka and Bubka eras of pole vault.
Bubka raised the outdoor record from 5.85 m in Bratislava in 1984 to 6.14 m in Sestriere in 1994, across 17 steps. He rarely jumped for round numbers, breaking his own mark by a single centimeter more often than not, a habit widely attributed to appearance and record bonuses that paid out per centimeter. It is a real strategy, and it is also, honestly, a little cynical: a vaulter capable of 6.14 m did not need ten years to get there.
Indoors, Bubka set 18 world records, from 5.81 m in Vilnius in January 1984 to 6.15 m in Donetsk in February 1993, a mark that held for 21 years. Lavillenie finally passed both records in 2014. Duplantis has since gone much further, clearing 6.31 m outdoors in Uppsala on March 12, 2026, his 15th world record. Bubka still holds the record for most world records by a pole vaulter, and probably always will, since no one vaults this often anymore.
Bubka's coach Vitaly Petrov developed the modern "Petrov method" of pole vault. Plumb takeoff, complete inversion, push-off above the bar. AI form check evaluates your technique against this standard.
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Selected milestones from his 35 total world records, indoor and outdoor, plus the mark that finally passed him.
| Date | Height | Venue | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 15, 1984 | 5.81 m | Vilnius | Indoor |
| May 26, 1984 | 5.85 m | Bratislava | Outdoor (first WR) |
| Jul 13, 1985 | 6.00 m | Paris | Outdoor (first man over 6 m) |
| Feb 8, 1986 | 5.92 m | Moscow | Indoor |
| Mar 17, 1987 | 5.97 m | Turin | Indoor |
| Feb 11, 1989 | 6.03 m | Osaka | Indoor |
| Mar 17, 1990 | 6.05 m | Donetsk | Indoor |
| Mar 23, 1991 | 6.12 m | Grenoble | Indoor |
| Feb 22, 1992 | 6.13 m | Berlin | Indoor |
| Feb 21, 1993 | 6.15 m | Donetsk | Indoor (his highest ever, stood 21 years) |
| Jul 31, 1994 | 6.14 m | Sestriere | Outdoor (his last, stood 20 years) |
| Mar 12, 2026 | 6.31 m | Uppsala | Duplantis, current world record |
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