Steve Hooker is an Olympic gold medallist pole vaulter who was part of the very small band of athletes able to to jump over 6m on a regular basis. He’s also the first Australian man to ever hold both the Olympic and world titles concurrently.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Steve became the first Australian field athlete to win Olympic gold in 60 years, the first Australian male track or field gold medallist since 1968 and the first Australian athletics Olympic champion since Cathy Freeman in 2000.
Track and field events run in the family; Steve’s father Bill was a four-time Australian 800m champion and his mother Erica represented the country in the long jump at the Munich Games in 1972.
However, the first sport at which Steve excelled was AFL, which he played at national level before he discovered pole vaulting.
Steve discovered pole vault while doing a training run at Box Hill athletics club, where he saw the former women’s world record holder Emma George practising. It proved to a moment that changed the course of his life.
