Zhang Guowei (high jumper)
Zhang Guowei is a Chinese high jumper. He holds the Chinese indoor record of 2.33 metres, and has jumped 2.38 metres outdoors. He was the 2015 World Championship silver medallist and the silver medallist at the 2012 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. He has been a finalist at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships and represented China at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics.
Zhang Guowei at the 2015 World Championships
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. Since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
Canadian high jumper Nicole Forrester demonstrating the Fosbury flop
Yelena Slesarenko hitting the bar while using the Fosbury Flop technique
Konstantinos Tsiklitiras during the standing high jump competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Gold medal winner Ethel Catherwood of Canada scissors over the bar at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Her winning result was 1.59 m (5 ft 2+1⁄2 in).