Matt Hemingway - 2004 Athens Olympics

2004 Athens Olympics

In 2004, at the (relatively advanced) age of 31, he finally earned a place on the US Olympic Team with a jump of 2.30 (7 ft 6.5 in) in the Trials. At the Olympics in Athens, he easily cleared the (automatic) qualifying height of 2.20 to reach the finals. In the finals on 22 August, Hemingway began jumping at 2.20 and was perfect (no misses) through 2.34. Four men cleared that height, including American teammate Jamie Nieto. As the bar was raised 2 centimeters to 2.34, Hemingway was in first place by virtue of being the only jumper with a perfect record. But when Sweden's Stefan Holm was the only jumper to scale 2.36, Hemingway was awarded the silver and Jaroslav Baba took the bronze (because of two misses at 2.32). For Hemingway, the 2.34 matched his personal best outdoors.