Anicka Newell was born on August 5, 1993, in Denton, Texas. She is eligible to compete for Canada as her mother was born in the country. She was fond of athletics and won a New Mexico Activities Association state individual title in the pole vault for Highland High School (Albuquerque, New Mexico) in 2009.

Anicka Newell earned an honorable mentioned All-America award in the pole vault at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She is also a two-time Sun Belt Conference Outdoor track and field champion in the pole vault for Texas State Bobcats.

Anicka Newell placed 1st at the 2018 Canadian Athletics Championships in Ottawa (4.45 m) to qualify for the August 11 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto but she did not clear a height.

She placed 7th in Athletics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Women’s pole vault (4.30 m) and placed 12th in women’s pole vault at the 2017 World Championship (4.45 m).

In July 2016, Anicka Newell was officially named to Canada’s Olympic team. She placed 29th at Athletics at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics – Women’s pole vault cleared 4.15 m. She was also part of the Canadian team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but did not clear the height to reach the finals.

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Angelica Therese Bengtsson was born on July 8, 1993, in Vackelsang, Sweden. She initially started out in gymnastics and also hoped to follow in her father’s footsteps in the javelin throw. It quickly became apparent that she had a talent for pole vaulting. She began her career at the club level for IFK Vaxjo, before going on to join Hasselby SK.

Angelica Bengtsson has won gold medals at the 2009 World Youth Championships and the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics. She set a mark of 4.47 m for the youth world record for the event in 2010 and broke the world junior record with a vault of 4.63 m in 2011. Angelica Bengtsson placed tied 4th at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China, having set a national record of 4.70 m in the final. She set a then-national record with 4.81 m, set indoor in Clermont-Ferrand, on February 24, 2019. Angelica Bengtsson has won eleven national titles.

On November 1, 2021, Angelica Bengtsson announced her retirement from pole vaulting.

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Polina Knoroz was born on born July 20, 1999, in St Petersburg, Russia. Her mother is Anna Chuprina-Knoroz is a former 400-meter hurdles runner, 1991 World champion, multiple Russian champion, and participant in the 1996 Olympic Games. Polina Knoroz trained at the Academy of Athletics of St. Petersburg. In 2015 she fulfilled the standard of master of sports, and in 2017 – a master of sports of international class.

Polina Knoroz is a champion of Russia among juniors indoors in 2017 and a champion of Russia among youth in 2017. She is also a bronze medalist of the Russian championship in 2017 and a silver medalist of the indoor championships of Russia in 2020 and 2021.

On July 4, 2021, Russian athlete Polina Knoroz won the pole vault at the Diamond League stage in Stockholm, overcoming the bar at a height of 4.71 meters.

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Katerina Stefanidi was born on February 4, 1990, in Cholargos, Athens, Greece. Her parents were athletes, competing in the triple jump and sprints. Katerina Stefanidi attended the 1st High School of Pallini and won the National High School Championships. She broke the National High School record and the Championship record winning gold at the 2006 Gymnasiade. Katerina Stefanidi broke all of the World age-group records for the ages of 11–14 and right after she turned 15, she broke the World Youth (under-18) record with a jump of 4.37 m.

Katerina Stefanidi has won a total of ten medals in all five major international athletics championships. She was named the European Women’s Athlete of the Year in 2017, and the Greek Female Athlete of the Year in 2017 and 2019. Because of her achievements, she is widely regarded as the greatest female athlete in the history of Greek sport.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she took 4th place, equaling her season’s best, with a jump of 4.80 meters.

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Alysha Newman was born on June 29, 1994, in London, Ontario, Canada. Her first sport was gymnastics, which she was forced to abandon at the age of 13 after injuring a lower back vertebra. After one year off sports where she considered ice hockey and diving, she chose track and field and was directed by a coach to vaulting due to her gymnastics background.

In 2013, Alysha Newman joined Eastern Michigan University, soon becoming Mid-American Conference champion and competing in the NCAA tournament.

Alysha Newman competed in the pole vault event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning the bronze medal. The 4.60 m (15 ft 1 in) vault ranked Newman as fourth in the world in women’s pole vault at that time.

In July 2016 Alysha Newman was officially named to Canada’s Olympic team. Competing in the Olympics, she only vaulted 4.45 m (14 ft 7 in) in qualification and missed the finals.

Alysha Newman improved her own national record again at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational at the University of Miami on April 8, 2017, where Newman vaulted 4.71 m (15 ft 5+1⁄4 in) in Coral Gables, Florida. In August, she was a finalist in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics, finishing seventh by vaulting 4.65 m (15 ft 3 in).

In March 2018, Alysha Newman placed sixth at the 2018 World Indoor Championships with a height of 4.70 m. In April, she competed at her second Commonwealth Games pole vault in the Gold Coast, winning the gold medal with a height of 4.75 m (15 ft 7 in), equaling her personal best and set a Commonwealth Games record.

In May 2018, while traveling to compete at the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix in Doha, Alysha Newman’s poles were all destroyed whilst in transit with Air Canada. She competed at the event with poles borrowed from a local athletics club, placing seventh.

In February 2019, Alysha Newman won the 2019 Indoor Meeting iKarlsruhe with a clearance of 4.71 m (15 ft 5 in), setting the Canadian indoor track and field pole vault record. In July 2019, Alysha Newman won at the Stabhochsprung Jockgrim meet with a new personal best of 4.77 m (15 ft 8 in).

Alysha Newman was named to the Canadian team for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which the COVID-19 pandemic caused to be delayed to 2021. She suffered a concussion in early 2021 and did not participate in the 2021 Diamond League after failing to clear a bar at a tune-up event in Sweden. Upon arrival in Tokyo for the pole vault event, Newman failed to take off on all three of her attempts in the qualification round and thus did not move on to the main phase of the competition.

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Nina Kennedy was born on April 5, 1997, in Perth, Western Australia. She started in gymnastics before moving into athletics.

Nina Kennedy finished 5th at the World Youth Championships 2013 in Donetsk, Ukraine, as well as 4th World Junior Championships 2014 in Eugene, Oregon, US. She withdrew from the Australian team for London 2017 World Championships with a troublesome quad injury, but returned in 2018 at World Indoor Championships, finishing 8th.

Nina Kennedy made her Olympic debut in Tokyo as part of the Australian athletics team in the pole vault. Her biggest achievement was the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games 2018.

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Anzhelika Sidorova was born on June 28, 1991, in Moscow, Russia. She is part of the physical culture and sports association “Youth of Moscow”, the center of sports training of national teams of the Chuvash Republic. In 2010, she took 4th place at the World Junior Championships. She won the silver medal at the 2013 European Youth Championships in Tempere (Finland).

In March 2013, Anzhelika Sidorova won the bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships. At the World Indoor Championships in March 2014, she won the silver medal. Anzhelika Sidorova is also Russian Indoor Champion (2014, 2015), as well as 2015 European Indoor Champion with a personal best of 4.80 meters.

Anzhelika Sidorova became the champion of Russia in 2015 with a result of 4.50 meters.

On February 14, 2016, she won the Russian Winter competition with a score of 4.71 meters, as well as the Russian Indoor Championship 2016 with a score of 4.70 meters.

June 21, 2016, Anzhelika Sidorova became a silver medalist of the Russian championship, with a personal record of 4.85 meters.

In 2019, Anzhelika Sidorova became a pole vault World champion with a score of 4.95 meters.

At Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she made a fantastic jump of 4.85 m, but finished second and took the silver medal.

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Sandi Morris was born on July 8, 1992, in Downers Grove, Illinois, United States.

Sandi Morris has a personal best vault of 4.95 m indoor, set on March 12, 2016, in Portland, Oregon. She matched this height at the 2018 World Indoor Championships when setting a new championship record.

On July 23, 2016, she cleared 4.93 m at American Track League in Houston at Rice University breaking Jennifer Suhr’s American outdoor record in the pole vault. Sandi Morris cleared 5.00 m at 2016 IAAF Diamond League Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 9, 2016, to set the US women’s outdoor pole vault record.

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As a Canadian youth and junior champion in pole vaulting, Robin Bone continued her training at Western University in London, Ontario where she broke and currently holds the USport Canadian National Record.

Robin Bone has her best result in pole vaulting of 4.22 m (outdoor) and 4.36 m (indoor).

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Allison Stokke competed at two NCAA Division I Championships, achieving All-American honors at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships, and earned regional level all-academic honors through her combined athletic and academic performances. Allison Stokke attempted to make the American Olympic team at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials but failed to record a height. She continued vaulting at national level meetings up to 2017.

After finishing her degree, Allison Stokke continued to pole vault, although she did not rank highly among American athletes. However, she did not perform well at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials.

Allison Stokke became a sportswear model, appearing in campaigns for Nike and Athleta in 2015, and Uniqlo in 2016. She also began to work with GoPro, delivering a series of videos of her vaulting heights with the camera attached to her pole to demonstrate the inner working of the sport and advertise the action camera equipment. By 2016, these videos have received in excess of six million views on YouTube.

Despite not placing highly on the national rankings, Allison Stokke continued to compete regularly in national level meetings. Her 2016 best was eighth at the Chula Vista OTC High Performance Meet with a height of 4.15 m and she improved the following year to 4.27 m for third at the 2017 Austin Longhorn Invitational.

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