Tim Forsyth
Encyclopedia
Tim Forsyth is a retired Australia
n three-time Olympic (92, 96, 00) high jump
er.
His first success on the international scene came in 1990 with a silver medal at the World Junior Championships. In 1992 the 19-year-old Forsyth won an Olympic bronze medal, equalling his current personal best height of 2.34m. He went on to win another World Junior Championships silver medal, this time beaten by Steve Smith. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games Forsyth finished ahead of Steve Smith.
His ultimate personal best jump of 2.36m was set in 1997, five months before he won his last global-event medal: A bronze at the World Championships
in Athens
. 2.36m was his ninth Australian record, and also the Oceanian area record. Forsyth is a six-time national champion
for Australia in the men's high jump event.
Since retiring from his elite athletic career Tim has gone on to set new standards in the world of basketball playing for the elite squad at the Peninsula Raiders. Still retaining much of his high jump spring, with his full beard and long hair, Tim has come to be known as the Jumping Jesus. It's not entirely clear whether this is due to his opponents' prayers that they might find someone who can match him on the boards or because of his teammates prayers that his frequent hail mary long shots will fall in. Rarely has Australian basketball seen a player capable of launching a jump shot from outside the D from an elevation almost higher than the backboard itself.
There is great hope that Tim's basketball feats will trump even those of his glorious, albeit brief to date, career as a Raiders Superules footballer. To achieve this would be a remarkable sporting accomplishment, demonstrating an impressive sporting versatility from an athlete coached from a young age away from sports that might put undue physical stress on the tightly coiled springs that constitute his jumping muscles. Superules, an exacting physical competition even in its lesser forms, has seen Tim establish a name as a potent rucking force due to the combination of his indomitable will to win every contest in combination with a superior natural aptitude that leaves his many fans wondering just what might have been had he pursued a career in football rather than the field of athletics in which he represented so magnificently the land of his birth.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n three-time Olympic (92, 96, 00) 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....
er.
His first success on the international scene came in 1990 with a silver medal at the World Junior Championships. In 1992 the 19-year-old Forsyth won an Olympic bronze medal, equalling his current personal best height of 2.34m. He went on to win another World Junior Championships silver medal, this time beaten by Steve Smith. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games Forsyth finished ahead of Steve Smith.
His ultimate personal best jump of 2.36m was set in 1997, five months before he won his last global-event medal: A bronze at the World Championships
1997 World Championships in Athletics
The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 198 participant nations...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. 2.36m was his ninth Australian record, and also the Oceanian area record. Forsyth is a six-time national champion
National champions High Jump (men)
Below a list of all national champions in the Men's High Jump event in track and field from several countries since 1980.- Argentina:*1980: Fernando Pastoriza*1981: Oscar Baronetto*1982: Carlos Gambetta*1983: Fernando Pastoriza...
for Australia in the men's high jump event.
Since retiring from his elite athletic career Tim has gone on to set new standards in the world of basketball playing for the elite squad at the Peninsula Raiders. Still retaining much of his high jump spring, with his full beard and long hair, Tim has come to be known as the Jumping Jesus. It's not entirely clear whether this is due to his opponents' prayers that they might find someone who can match him on the boards or because of his teammates prayers that his frequent hail mary long shots will fall in. Rarely has Australian basketball seen a player capable of launching a jump shot from outside the D from an elevation almost higher than the backboard itself.
There is great hope that Tim's basketball feats will trump even those of his glorious, albeit brief to date, career as a Raiders Superules footballer. To achieve this would be a remarkable sporting accomplishment, demonstrating an impressive sporting versatility from an athlete coached from a young age away from sports that might put undue physical stress on the tightly coiled springs that constitute his jumping muscles. Superules, an exacting physical competition even in its lesser forms, has seen Tim establish a name as a potent rucking force due to the combination of his indomitable will to win every contest in combination with a superior natural aptitude that leaves his many fans wondering just what might have been had he pursued a career in football rather than the field of athletics in which he represented so magnificently the land of his birth.
Achievements
| Year | Tournament | Venue | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | World Junior Championships | Plovdiv Plovdiv Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe... , Bulgaria Bulgaria Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east... |
2nd |
| 1992 | Summer Olympics Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, 43 events in athletics were contested, 24 events by men and 19 by women. The competition ran from July 31, 1992 to August 9, 1992. Fourteen world record-holders were among the contenders... |
Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of... , Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
3rd |
| 1992 | World Junior Championships | Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world... , South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... |
2nd |
| 1993 | World Championships 1993 World Championships in Athletics - Men's High Jump These are the official results of the Men's High Jump event at the 1993 IAAF World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. There were a total of 40 participating athletes, with two qualifying groups and the final held on Sunday August 22, 1993... |
Stuttgart Stuttgart Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million .... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
9th |
| 1994 | Commonwealth Games 1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games were held in Victoria, in the province of British Columbia in Canada, from 18 August to 28 August 1994.The XV Commonwealth Games marked South Africa's return to the Commonwealth Games following the apartheid era, and over 30 years since the country last competed in the... |
Victoria, Canada | 1st |
| 1995 | World Championships 1995 World Championships in Athletics - Men's High Jump These are the official results of the Men's High Jump event at the 1995 IAAF World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. There were a total number of 35 participating athletes, with two qualifying groups and the final held on Tuesday August 8, 1995.... |
Gothenburg, Sweden | 8th |
| 1996 | Summer Olympics Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics - Men's high jump These are the official results of the men's high jump event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were a total number of 38 competitors, with one non-starter.-Medalists:-Records:... |
Atlanta, United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
7th |
| 1997 | World Championships 1997 World Championships in Athletics The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 198 participant nations... |
Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state... , Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
3rd |
| 1998 | Commonwealth Games 1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 XVI Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 September to 21 September 1998 making it the first Asian country to act as host and the last Commonwealth Games for the 20th century. A record 70 nations supplied 3638 athletes... |
Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million... , Malaysia |
3rd |