Debbie Brill OC

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

(born March 10, 1953 in Mission, British Columbia

Mission, British Columbia

Mission, the core of which was formerly known as Mission City, is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is situated on the north bank of the Fraser River overlooking the City of Abbotsford and with that city is part of the Central Fraser Valley. Mission is the...

) is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 high jump

High jump

The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....

 athlete who was the first North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n woman to clear 6 feet, at age 16. Her unique reverse jumping style was called the "Brill Bend". She is an eleven-time national champion of Canada.

Debbie has held the Canadian National High Jump record, both indoor (1.99 meters - 6' 6½ ") and outdoor (1.98 meters - 6' 6"), since 1969, establishing her first Canadian High Jump record when she was 16 years old. Her Canadian High Jump records remain unbroken. She was ranked in the top 8 female jumpers in the world for 12 years in a career that spanned 21 years, from 1967–1988. Debbie's jump, outdoors, of 1.98 m. in 1984 would have tied the 5th highest jump by a woman in an outdoors meet in the summer (August) of 2010.

In 1979 Debbie won a gold medal in the World Cup athletics championship (the precursor to the World Athletics Championships) held in Montreal, Canada.

Debbie was ranked number one in the world by Track and Field News going into the 1980 Olympics which Canada boycotted because of the U.S.S.R.'s military involvement in Afghanistan.

In January 1982 Debbie established a World Indoor High Jump record of 1.99 meters in Edmonton, Alberta, 5 months after giving birth to her first son, Neil. She has a daughter, Katelin, and a son, Jacob. She is married to a physician, Dr. Douglas Coleman.

In 1983, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 in recognition for being "Canada's premier woman high-jumper".

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1970	Commonwealth Games 1970 British Commonwealth Games The 1970 British Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 16 July to 25 July 1970.This was the first time the name British Commonwealth Games was adopted, the first time metric units rather than imperial units were used in events, and also the first time the games were held in...	Edinburgh, Scotland	1st	High Jump
1971	Pan American Games 1971 Pan American Games The 6th Pan American Games were held in Cali, Colombia, from July 30 to August 13, 1971. The then called "Salsa World Capital", located at the foot of the Andes Mountains, hosted a total of 2,935 athletes from 32 countries, who participated in seventeen sports...	Cali, Colombia	1st	High Jump
1972	Olympic Games Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, 38 events in athletics were contested, 24 for men and 14 for women. There were a total number of 1324 participating athletes from 104 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:*...	Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... , West Germany West Germany West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....	8th	High Jump
1978	Commonwealth Games 1978 Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August 1978, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal, Quebec...	Edmonton, Canada	2nd	High Jump
1979	Pan American Games Athletics at the 1979 Pan American Games The Athletics Competition at the 1979 Pan American Games was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:*...	San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...	3rd	High Jump
1982	Commonwealth Games 1982 Commonwealth Games The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 30 September–9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium , in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the venue which was used for the athletics and archery competitions during the...	Brisbane, Australia	1st	High Jump
1983	World Championships 1983 World Championships in Athletics - Women's High Jump These are the official results of the Women's High Jump event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total number of 33 participating athletes, with two qualifying groups and the final held on Tuesday August 9, 1983....	Helsinki, Finland	6th	High Jump
1984	Olympic Games Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, 41 events in athletics were contested, 24 events by men and 17 by women. There were a total number of 1273 participating athletes from 124 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:...	Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...	5th	High Jump