Steven Lewis

Steven James Lewis (born 20 May 1986) is an English former pole vaulter. He won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and his personal best jump of 5.82 metres, set in July 2012, is the former British record for the event. Indoors his best is 5.77 m, achieved in Dessau on 2 March 2012.

Biography Lewis was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and he attended Holden Lane High School. Originally a hurdler, he switched to pole vaulting. Lewis finished in fourth place at the 2009 European Indoor Championships with jump of 5.71 m, which resulted in British head coach Charles van Commenee praising his development.

He represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics and is a three-time medalist for England at the Commonwealth Games. He has participated at the World Championships in Athletics on five occasions (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015) and was a finalist on multiple occasions. He has been a finalist at the IAAF World Indoor Championships three times.

Lewis achieved a personal best and broke the British record of 5.80 m set by Nick Buckfield in 1998, with a vault of 5.82 m at the 2012 Janusz Kusociński Memorial in Szczecin, Poland. He competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing in fourth place with a vault of 5.75 m, becoming Britain's most successful men's pole vault Olympian.

In 2014, he won the Commonwealth title, completing a full set of Commonwealth medals. Injured in 2016 Lewis missed the Rio Olympic Qualification Standard and retired in early 2017 in Reno, Nevada. Lewis is considered the most successful British pole-vaulter of all time after representing Great Britain in major championship finals consistently over a 12-year period, winning 13 national titles, breaking junior and senior records, and winning international medals.

Lewis was seven-times British pole vault champion after winning the British AAA Championships title in 2006 and the British Athletics Championships in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

In January 2018 Lewis announced his retirement from athletics

Competition record