Jean Galfione started pole vaulting as part of the decathlon when he was 13 years old and a member of the Stade français sports club. He was talent-spotted by Maurice Houvion, who was a coach at INSEP. In 1987 he became part of the group of pole vaulters trained by Houvion at INSEP. In 1988, he broke the pole vault national youth
record by clearing 5.16 m. In 1990 he won the World Junior Championships pole vault gold medal with a jump of 5.45 m and also broke the pole vault national junior indoor record with a jump of 5.60 m.[1][2]
Galfione won six successive French National Athletics Championships outdoor pole vault titles at the senior level from 1993 to 1998. He also won three French National Athletics Championships indoor pole vault titles at the senior level in 1990, 1993 and 1994.[1]
1996 Olympic Games
Galfione achieved the pinnacle of his pole vault career by winning the pole vault gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In the final of that competition, all the three medallists cleared the same height of 5.92 m. Whereas Galfione and Igor Trandenkov both cleared 5.92 m on their first attempt, Andrei Tivontchik could only clear 5.92 m on his second attempt. Galfione had cleared 5.86 m (the previous highest height) on his first attempt, whereas Trandenkov had two successive misses at 5.86 m and chose to use his third and final attempt to clear 5.92 m instead. Since all these three pole vaulters and no one else had succeeded in clearing 5.92 m, the podium positions were still undecided. All of them subsequently had three consecutive misses in attempting to clear heights greater than 5.92 m, and the contest was therefore declared over. Thus under the tie-breaking rules, Galfione (he had fewer misses in the final than Trandenkov) won the gold medal, with Trandenkov taking the silver and Tivontchik taking the bronze. Galfione's 5.92 m winning clearance was a new Olympic record that was 2 cm higher than the previous Olympic record achieved by Sergey Bubka in the 1988 Olympics pole vault final. "This is one of the most beautiful days of my life," Galfione said right after the end of the competition. "All my hard work and patience have paid off. This is absolutely the result of my hard work. The competition was long and tough, but I recovered very well after every jump."[3][4]
From 2000 to 2002, Galfione was plagued with numerous injuries. He underwent surgery on a collapsed lung suffered during an interclub competition in Paris in May 2000. He underwent another operation in July 2002.[2][7][8]
Galfione participated in the 2000 Olympics pole vault event in Sydney. In the qualification round, after clearing the bar at 5.40 m and 5.55 m (both at the first attempts), he failed with his three attempts at 5.65 m. He finished the qualification round in joint 16th position and did not qualify for the final.[8]
Galfione could not take part in the 2004 Olympics because he failed to clear the minimum Olympic qualifying height.[7]
Galfione also worked as an athletics commentator and consultant for Canal Plus and presented documentaries for the French television channel, Voyage.[6][11]
Family
Jean Galfione comes from a sporting family.
Both his parents were sportspersons. His father (Serge) was a fencer and his mother (Michèle, Serge's wife) was a gymnast who was a French national junior gymnastics champion.[12][13]
On 14 May 2013, Jean Galfione's companion since 2011, Cathy, gave birth to a baby girl, Rose. Rose was Galfione's first child.[15]
International competitions
Only the position and height in the final are indicated, unless otherwise stated. (q) means the athlete did not qualify for the final, with the overall position and height in the qualification round indicated.