Steve Lewis

23 year old Steve Lewis is already one of the top pole vaulters in the World and a dedicated and driven young athlete with a goal of winning gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He is confident and professional in his approach both to his sport and life, and is a natural communicator.

Born and raised in Stoke on Trent, Steve started his athletics career as a hurdler but after trying out a number of disciplines he followed his brother into Pole Vault. Early success at the Pole Vault as a junior gave him the ambition to go for greater things and in 2004 he made the decision to move to Loughborough to train with GB Pole Vault coach Steve Rippon.

In 2006 he won his first medal on the senior stage at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, where he cleared 5.50m to win Bronze. His preparation for the Games took place in Perth, Australia, a winter training base he has subsequently used again in preparation for the 2009 summer season.

Steve Lewis Photo GalleryIn 2008 Steve, set a British Indoor Championship record of 5.61m and set a personal best of 5.71m in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He won the Aviva National Championships with 5.60m and cleared 5.70m to place second in Liege three days later. Steve made the Olympic team for Beijing.

In 2009 his year got off to a brilliant start with him jumping a personal best of 5.75m in Manchester in January. He went on to place 4th in the European Indoors in Turin with a jump of 5.71m in March.

His summer season then progressed with perfect timing taking him to an outdoor personal best of 5.72m in Bochum Germany just over two weeks from the Champs.

And at the World Championships in Berlin, August 2009 Steve jumped 5.65m and ended the competition ranked 7th in the World.

Again in 2010 he showed his potential when he came 6th = at the World Indoors in Qatar. Following this he made a major move in his coaching set up and changed to be coached by Dan Pfaff and under this new arrangement to spend some time training in Australia with Olympic Champion Steve Hooker. A tough summer of new learning new approaches to vaulting and using new poles meant patience and determination – that paid off with a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.

His short term aim is to break the British Pole Vault outdoor record of 5.80m. Longer term his aim is to join the 6.00m club and win an Olympic Gold medal.

When he is not training and competing Steve’s two favourite outdoor activities are climbing and mountain biking.