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Weight
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85 kg
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Height
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188 cm
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Date of birth
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16.07.1982
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Place of birth
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Melbourne, Australia
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Nationality
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Australia
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Place of residence: Perth, Australia Coach: Alexey ParnovFormer coach: Mark Stewart His father Bill Hooker participated at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in 800m and 4x400m and won four Australian national titles. His mother Erica Hooker (née Nixon) competed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and won silver medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Long Jump. She won nine national titles. Schools: Greythorn Primary School, Balwyn High School Steven Hooker became the first Australian male track and field Olympic gold medallist in 40 years, winning the Pole Vault at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a new Olympic record of 5.96 m.Then he made himself even more famous with his extraordinary performance in Berlin, where he won the gold despite a groin injury. On only his second jump, he cleared 5.90, to win the gold after missing 5.85 on his first attempt.“I remember hearing how Maxim Tarasov opened at 5.90 in the Berlin Golden League meeting (in 1999: Tarasov won with 6.01). I was totally in awe, and still am. It’s one of the legends of pole vault. Maxim was extremely consistent technically, and he would (be able to) do that. I would never have thought I could.” Despite coming from a track and field family Steve played Australian Rules Football to a high level and considered a career as an AFL player before committing to athletics and pole-vaulting.His first international success was in 2000 when he finished 4th at the World Junior Championships in Santiago de Chile.His career started slowly, and he first participated in the international circuit in 2005. He has an interest in skydiving and has completed many parachute jumps. Hooker’s next goal is to break Sergey Bubka’s World record. “Sergey presented me with my medal (in Berlin), but he doesn’t really acknowledge me all that much at the moment,” he was quoted in PerthNow. “I like the fact that he’s got that attitude because it makes me more hungry to break his record and push up to those heights.”