) was a pole vault

Pole vault

Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...

er from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

On August 28, 1983 in the German city of Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, he set a new world record with 5.82 metres. That day, after winning the contest, he became the first athlete to attempt to clear 6.00 metres in an official meet. Though he failed by a significant margin, "he didn't make a fool of himself," as his coach Jean-Claude Perrin said to the French media. Quinon's record was short-lived - on September 1, 1983 fellow countryman Thierry Vigneron

Thierry Vigneron

Thierry Vigneron is a retired French athlete. For many years he was among the world's leading pole vaulters....

 beat it by one centimetre.

In 1984, Quinon won the gold medal at the 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:...

 with a height of 5.75m, with Vigneron placing joint third. Though both Frenchmen ranked among the favorites before the Games, Quinon's win was a minor surprise because Vigneron, usually the better performer, was expected to prevail. Quinon took the silver medal at the 1984 European Indoor Championships behind Vigneron. On July 16, 1985, Quinon achieved his personal best of 5.90 metres, 10 centimetres behind the then-world record.

He retired in 1993 and entered the restaurant business in the south of France. He had also been involved in preparations for the 2015 World Masters Athletics in Lyon.

Pierre Quinon committed suicide on August 17, 2011 by jumping out of a window in the Mediterranean city of Hyères

Hyères

Hyères , Provençal Occitan: Ieras in classical norm or Iero in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France....

.

He was 49 and had been suffering from depression

Depression (mood)

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...

. He had been running a rotisserie business from a truck prior to his death. He had two children, Robin and Jean-Baptiste, by his ex-wife, Caroline Large.

His funeral took place on the parvis

Parvise

Parvise or parvis may refer to:#A room over the porch of a church — quite often found in Norman churches in England. In some churches these rooms were used for school rooms and in Castle Ashby was the home of a woman - who saved the manor house from burning when she saw the fire taking hold from...

 of the town hall and the Saint-Trophyme church of the town of Bormes-les-Mimosas

Bormes-les-Mimosas

Bormes-les-Mimosas is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It has a Mediterranean climate.Bormes-les-Mimosas is a city in bloom and won the 2003 Gold Medal awarded by the Entente Florale...

 in the department of Var

Var

Var, VAR, VAr, VaR or var can mean:VAR* Varna Airport IATA airport code* Vacuum arc remelting, a process for production of steel and special alloys...

 on August 23, 2011. It was attended by more than 200 persons, among them his children, ex-wife, sister, mother and notable, retired French athletes like Stéphane Diagana

Stéphane Diagana

Stéphane Diagana is a former French athlete who won the gold medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens over 400 metres hurdles. In 2002 he won the gold medal at the European Championships in Athletics in Munich in the same event. Diagana also set the European record of 47.37...

, Maryse Éwanjé-Épée

Maryse Ewanjé-Epée

Maryse Ewanjé-Epée is a retired high jumper from France, who set her personal best on July 21, 1985, jumping 1.96 metres at a meet in Colombes. She competed for her native country in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984 , where she finished in fourth place...

, Thierry Vigneron

Thierry Vigneron

Thierry Vigneron is a retired French athlete. For many years he was among the world's leading pole vaulters....

, Christian Plaziat

Christian Plaziat

Christian Plaziat is a retired French decathlete. During his career he won the European Championships, the European Indoor Championships and the World Indoor Championships.-Achievements:-External links:...

 and William Motti

William Motti

William Motti is a retired French decathlete.His personal best of 8164 points were achieved at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona 1992.-Achievements:-External links:*...

. He was buried in Bormes-les-Mimosas' cemetery.

Major achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Extra
1984	European Indoor Championships 1984 European Indoor Championships in Athletics The 15th European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in Gothenburg, a city in Sweden, in 1984.-Track:-Field:-Medal table:-External links:* at GBRathletics.com* at GBRathletics.com*...	Gothenburg Gothenburg Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area... , Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....	2nd
	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 Los Ángeles Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants... , United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1st