# Renaud Lavillenie
**Renaud Lavillenie** (born 1986 in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, France) is a French pole vaulter who won the 2012 Olympic gold medal, set the pole vault world record of 6.16 meters indoors in 2014, and returned to a World Championships final at age 39 in 2025.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) • [2](https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/pole-vault-world-record-ratified)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1986, Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire (Charente), France; 1.77 m, 73 kg[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) |
| Olympic results | Gold, London 2012, 5.97 m (Olympic record); silver, Rio 2016, 5.98 m; finalist again at Tokyo 2020 (8th, 5.70 m)[3](https://worldathletics.org/news/feature/lavillenie-doing-his-best-to-continue-the-s) • [4](https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxiii-olympic-games-7153115/news/article/rio-2016-men-pole-vault) • [1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) |
| World record | 6.16 m indoors, Donetsk, 15 February 2014, ratified by the IAAF; exceeded Sergey Bubka's 6.15 m indoor (1993) and 6.14 m outdoor (1994) marks[2](https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/pole-vault-world-record-ratified) |
| World Championships | Silver, Moskva 2013; bronze, Berlin 2009, Daegu 2011, Beijing 2015, and London 2017[5](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/125941) |
| Indoor world titles | World Indoor champion 2012 (Istanbul), 2016 (Portland), and 2018 (Birmingham)[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) |
| European titles | Outdoor champion 2010, 2012, 2014; indoor champion 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) |
| Honors | IAAF World Athlete of the Year 2014[6](https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitioninfo/b57186ed-c144-4726-aff6-c73befb91e40.pdf) |
| Coaches and clubs | Gilles Lavillenie (1996–2007), Georges Martin (2007–2008), Damien Inocencio (2008–2012), Philippe Dencausse (2012–); Cognac AC, Clermont Athletisme Auvergne, Envol[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) |
## Early career
Lavillenie began vaulting under his father Gilles, who coached him from 1996 to 2007, and progressed through the Cognac AC club before joining Clermont Athletisme Auvergne in 2010.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) His progression shows a steady climb: 4.60 m in 2004, 5.45 m in 2007, and 6.01 m in 2009, the year he took his first World Championships medal, a bronze in Berlin.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies)
## Olympic champion, London 2012
At the London 2012 final on 10 August, Lavillenie entered as favorite and cleared an Olympic record of 5.97 m to win the gold, the fourth French pole vault Olympic title including 1906, after Fernand Gonder, Pierre Quinon, and Jean Galfione.[3](https://worldathletics.org/news/feature/lavillenie-doing-his-best-to-continue-the-s) • [7](https://www.olympedia.org/results/302440) He was the first French track and field Olympic champion since 1996 and the third French men's [Olympic pole vault](https://www.edgepedia.org/pole-vault-at-the-olympics) champion.[8](https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62edf7c64125f9c22bf8bbaa.pdf) He had already won the 2012 World Indoor title in Istanbul and the European outdoor title in Helsinki that same year.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies)
## Rio 2016
In Rio, Lavillenie was the defending champion and entered the competition at 5.75 m with a first-time clearance after a rain delay.[4](https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxiii-olympic-games-7153115/news/article/rio-2016-men-pole-vault) He cleared 5.93 m and 5.98 m on his first attempts, but Brazil's Thiago Braz, urged on by the home crowd, cleared 6.03 m, a South American and Olympic record, to take the gold. Lavillenie took silver with 5.98 m and raised the bar to 6.08 m in a final attempt to retake the lead, which he did not clear.[4](https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxiii-olympic-games-7153115/news/article/rio-2016-men-pole-vault) Elements of the partisan crowd booed him during the competition, and he was comforted afterwards by Braz and by [Sergey Bubka](https://www.edgepedia.org/sergey-bubka).[4](https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxiii-olympic-games-7153115/news/article/rio-2016-men-pole-vault) • [9](https://www.olympedia.org/results/358704)
## The world record, Donetsk 2014
On 15 February 2014, at the Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, Lavillenie cleared 6.16 m indoors, breaking Sergey Bubka's records of 6.15 m indoors (Donetsk, 21 February 1993) and 6.14 m outdoors (Sestriere, 31 July 1994).[2](https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/pole-vault-world-record-ratified) The IAAF ratified the mark as the outright world record under Rule 260.18, in force since 1998, which allows records in facilities with or without a roof.[2](https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/pole-vault-world-record-ratified) Bubka, whose idol status Lavillenie has acknowledged, congratulated him in person minutes after the jump, in the same arena where Bubka had set his indoor record almost 20 years earlier.[8](https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62edf7c64125f9c22bf8bbaa.pdf) • [10](https://worldathletics.org/spikes/news/lavillenie-i-am-able-to-jump-620m-623m-maybe)
The record carried a cost. Attempting 6.21 m shortly after the record, Lavillenie injured his left ankle as he fell backwards and missed the World Indoor Championships in Sopot three weeks later.[11](https://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf) He was named World Athlete of the Year for 2014.[6](https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitioninfo/b57186ed-c144-4726-aff6-c73befb91e40.pdf) His 6.16 m stood as the world record until February 2020, when [Armand Duplantis](https://www.edgepedia.org/armand-duplantis) cleared 6.17 m.[12](https://elpais.com/deportes/2025-02-28/nuevo-record-del-mundo-de-salto-con-pertiga-de-mondo-duplantis-627m.html)
## Championship record
Across his career Lavillenie accumulated medals at every level of global and continental competition: five World Championships medals (one silver, four bronze), three World Indoor titles, three European outdoor titles, and four European indoor titles.[5](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/125941) • [1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) He also won 11 French outdoor titles and 6 French indoor titles.[13](https://www.lequipe.fr/fiche/renaud-lavillenie/14857) He made 46 appearances for the French A team between 2008 and 2025, winning 24 of those competitions.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies)
## Later career
Lavillenie remained competitive into his late thirties. He was eighth in the final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at 5.70 m.[1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies) Recurring hamstring injuries kept him out of the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he had failed to qualify; he served instead as a torch bearer at the Paris opening ceremony and acted as an adviser to Armand Duplantis, who calls him one of the only people he listens to about pole vaulting.[14](https://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2025/09/13/renaud-lavillenie-qualifie-pour-la-finale-du-saut-a-la-perche-aux-championnats-du-monde-d-athletisme_6640844_3242.html) • [15](https://time.com/7004283/paris-olympics-opening-ceremony-seine/) • [16](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2024/08/06/paris-2024-armand-duplantis-eclipses-competitors-with-gold-medal-and-new-world-record_6710348_9.html)
At the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, a week before his 39th birthday, he qualified for his eighth World Championships final in 10th place at 5.75 m and finished eighth in the final at the same height.[14](https://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2025/09/13/renaud-lavillenie-qualifie-pour-la-finale-du-saut-a-la-perche-aux-championnats-du-monde-d-athletisme_6640844_3242.html) • [1](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies)
## References
1. [Renaud LAVILLENIE, biographie, Fédération Française d'Athlétisme](https://www.athle.fr/athletes/264469/biographies)
2. [World record ratified, World Athletics press release, 9 March 2014](https://worldathletics.org/news/press-release/pole-vault-world-record-ratified)
3. [Lavillenie – doing his best to continue the story of French vault success, World Athletics](https://worldathletics.org/news/feature/lavillenie-doing-his-best-to-continue-the-s)
4. [Report: men's pole vault final – Rio 2016 Olympic Games, World Athletics](https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxiii-olympic-games-7153115/news/article/rio-2016-men-pole-vault)
5. [Olympedia – Renaud Lavillenie](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/125941)
6. [IAAF biographical summaries: LAVILLENIE Renaud](https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitioninfo/b57186ed-c144-4726-aff6-c73befb91e40.pdf)
7. [Olympedia – Pole Vault, Men, London 2012](https://www.olympedia.org/results/302440)
8. [Renaud LAVILLENIE — Order 4, World Athletics media document](https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62edf7c64125f9c22bf8bbaa.pdf)
9. [Olympedia – Pole Vault, Men, Rio 2016](https://www.olympedia.org/results/358704)
10. ["I am able to jump 6.23m, maybe", SPIKES, World Athletics](https://worldathletics.org/spikes/news/lavillenie-i-am-able-to-jump-620m-623m-maybe)
11. [Progression of IAAF World Records 2015, IAAF](https://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf)
12. [Nuevo récord del mundo de salto con pértiga de Mondo Duplantis: 6,27m, El País](https://elpais.com/deportes/2025-02-28/nuevo-record-del-mundo-de-salto-con-pertiga-de-mondo-duplantis-627m.html)
13. [Renaud Lavillenie, fiche, L'Équipe](https://www.lequipe.fr/fiche/renaud-lavillenie/14857)
14. [Renaud Lavillenie qualifié pour la finale du saut à la perche aux championnats du monde d'athlétisme, Le Monde, 13 September 2025](https://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2025/09/13/renaud-lavillenie-qualifie-pour-la-finale-du-saut-a-la-perche-aux-championnats-du-monde-d-athletisme_6640844_3242.html)
15. [What It Was Like on the Seine During the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, TIME](https://time.com/7004283/paris-olympics-opening-ceremony-seine/)
16. [Paris 2024: Armand Duplantis eclipses competitors with gold medal and new world record, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2024/08/06/paris-2024-armand-duplantis-eclipses-competitors-with-gold-medal-and-new-world-record_6710348_9.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Athletics, gymnastics, and strength sports › Athletes of track and field and road running › Jumpers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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