Top 10 Most Beautiful Female Pole Vaulters in the World 2026

Pole vault is kinda one of those events that really ask a lot from people, it is technically demanding in a way that most other athletics disciplines simply don’t match. It’s like you need the speed of a sprinter, the raw strength of a gymnast, and also that nerve that says ok, I’m actually going to hurl myself five metres up into the air with just a fibreglass pole, and a lot of training years behind it.

The women who compete in it are remarkable athletes. They also happen to include some of the most striking personalities in all of sport — on the track, on social media, and everywhere in between.

Here are the ten most beautiful female pole vaulters in the world right now, ranked by their combination of athletic achievement, personality, and global following.

1. Sana Grillo — Malta 🇲🇹

Personal Best: 3.70m | National Titles: 4x National Champion | Instagram: @sanagrillo

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Sana Grillo is arguably the most remarkable story on this list. She represents Malta — which is, honestly, one of the smallest countries in Europe — at international level in pole vault. At the same time she’s building a career as a sport psychology practitioner, plus she creates content too, so it’s not just track things.

Born in 2000, she managed to set Malta’s first ever Senior Indoor Pole Vault national record in London in 2024. She cleared 3.41 metres, no drama, just focus. Her outdoor personal best is 3.70m, and it was set at the Marsa Athletics Track in June 2023.

What makes Sana stand out, beyond the medals and marks, is her personality. She’s thoughtful, articulate, and genuinely into making sport more inclusive. She’s been on panels in Brussels, talking about better athlete support systems, and in her spare time she coaches youth gymnastics , so you can see she invests energy in people, not only results. Her TikTok and Instagram also show fans the real behind-the-scenes view of what it means to be an elite athlete coming from a small nation.

👉 Read our full Sana Grillo biography

2. Sandi Morris — USA 🇺🇸

Personal Best: 4.95m | World Championship Silver: Doha 2019

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Sandi Morris is one of the most consistent performers in women’s pole vault history. With a personal best of 4.95m, she’s sitting among the all time greats, and for nearly a decade she’s been a regular at the top end of global rankings.

She took silver at the 2019 World Championships, finishing behind Sidorova, has won multiple Diamond League titles, and she has competed at three Olympic Games. Her style is known as powerful, aggressive vaulting , plus she has that mental sturdiness when competitions get really tense.

And on top of that, she’s an active social media personality and one of the most recognisable faces in American track and field, like people actually notice her.

3. Alysha Newman — Canada 🇨🇦

Personal Best: 4.85m | Olympic Medal: Bronze, Paris 2024

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Alysha Newman is that kind of athlete where you just end up sitting back and thinking, oh yeah, this is the whole point of watching sport in the first place. The Canadian cleared 4.85 metres to grab bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics and, after that she celebrated by doing a little twerk right on the landing mat which, honestly it went viral across most of the platforms online within just a few hours.

She’s been in the game at the very top level for well over a decade , she won at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 too, and somehow she still keeps this vibe that feels both focused and fun. Over time, she’s built a name as one of the more entertaining, magnetic figures in athletics not just another faces-in-a-lane situation. That mix of elite execution, quick humour, and real warmth is what makes her so hard to ignore, and also why people genuinely root for her.

Off the track, she’s got a strong social media footprint and she’s become, one of the biggest names in Canadian athletics history.

👉 Read our full Alysha Newman biography

4. Katerina Stefanidi — Greece 🇬🇷

Personal Best: 4.91m | Olympic Champion: Rio 2016 | World Champion: London 2017

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Katerina Stefanidi kind of, is the most decorated Greek athlete in pole vault history. She claimed Olympic gold in Rio 2016, then followed with World Championship gold in London 2017, and she also has a handful of European Championship titles, on her record too.

Her personal best, 4.91m, kind of says it all about how her career was built on steady repeat performances , technical excellence, and that calm championship kind of composure. She went to Stanford University in the United States before she decided, to fully lean into athletics and not just dabble. That academic backdrop shows in the way she treats the event, more like an analytical plan than a pure instinct situation.

She’s still active at the top level and she keeps appearing at major international meetings, not slowing down at all.

5. Molly Caudery — Great Britain 🇬🇧

Personal Best: 4.85m | British Record Holder

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Molly Caudery is kinda the current British record holder, with a personal best of 4.85 metres, set in Birmingham in August 2025. The 26-year-old from Cornwall has quickly established herself as one of the most exciting vaulters in European athletics, like really fast too.

She showed up at the Paris 2024 Olympics and made it to the final, and her path/trajectory suggests she’ll be a real medal contender at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. She’s also, honestly, one of the more active British athletes online , with a steadily growing following across Instagram and TikTok.

Her 2025 performances, including that British record, pretty much confirmed her as someone to watch over the next Olympic cycle.

6. Maria Roberta Gherca — Romania/Italy 🇷🇴

Personal Best: 4.55m | Italian U23 Champion: 2022

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Maria Roberta Gherca is, in a way, one of those technically gifted young vaulters you see in European athletics and think wow, she’s going places. She picked up bronze at the European Athletics Championships twice, and in 2022 she was Italian U23 champion with a clearance of 4.22 meters. Now her personal best is 4.55m and that actually puts her in the mix for major championship medals, not merely as a starter but genuinely in contention.

Her coaches keep pointing to this untapped technical potential still sitting there, almost like it’s waiting, and it’s the kind of detail that matters.

Also she helps coach younger athletes, so there is more than just her own performances. That involvement shows a commitment to the sport that goes beyond what a result alone could suggest.

👉 Read our full Maria Roberta Gherca biography

7. Nina Kennedy — Australia 🇦🇺

Personal Best: 4.90m | World Champion: Budapest 2023 | Olympic Champion: Paris 2024

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Nina Kennedy is the current Olympic and World Champion in pole vault. She cleared 4.90m to share the World Championship gold with Katie Moon in Budapest in 2023, which was one of the more dramatic ends in the event history, and after that she kinda backed it up by taking Olympic gold in Paris in 2024.

Off the runway, she’s warm , funny , and really easy to vibe with on social media. She’s always dropping training snippets, plus those real life bits that come with being a professional athlete. So it’s that mix, elite results and straight up likability, that’s made her one of the sport’s most cherished personalities worldwide.

8. Clara Fernández — Spain 🇪🇸

Personal Best: 4.25m | Instagram: @clarafdez | Followers: 720,000+

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If there’s one name that kind of dominates conversations about pole vault and social media in 2026, it’s Clara Fernández. The 22-year-old, from Barcelona , has racked up more than 21 national titles since she was 15 , and she also posted a new personal best of 4.25 metres at the 2025 Spanish Indoor Championships.

But yeah it’s her Instagram that’s made her really famous globally. With over 720,000 followers she’s been covered by the New York Post and a lot of people basically call her the most recognisable young pole vaulter on earth right now. She’s sponsored by Nike and Hyundai, and her following keeps edging upward with each competition.

She’s a genuine two for one, top level athlete and top level presence.

👉 Read our full Clara Fernández biography

9. Anzhelika Sidorova — Russia/ANA 🇷🇺

Personal Best: 5.01m | World Champion: Doha 2019

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Anzhelika Sidorova is one of the greatest female pole vaulters ever, kinda, and with a personal best of 5.01 metres she finds herself in that very small set of women who have cleared the five-metre barrier, so basically she’s in the elite circle with the legendary Yelena Isinbayeva.

She took World Championship gold in Doha in 2019 , with a then personal best of 4.95m, and since then she has stayed as one of the top performers on the global circuit for more than a decade. Even while she had to compete as a neutral athlete because of Russia’s international ban , she never let the political atmosphere ruin her approach. In other words, professionalism stays intact and performances still come through.

10. Wilma Murto — Finland 🇫🇮

Personal Best: 4.85m | European Champion: 2022 | World Indoor Champion: 2023

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Wilma Murto meanwhile has had one of those remarkable upward trajectories in women’s pole vault over the last four years. She became European Champion in 2022, then followed it up by winning gold at the 2023 World Indoor Championships .

That’s two of the biggest trophies in the sport within just a 12-month span, which is not something you see every day, honestly. Her personal best of 4.85m places her firmly in the top tier of active vaulters worldwide. She is widely recognized for consistency and technical clarity , and at 28 she is moving into the peak stretch of her athletic career , with her best jumps potentially still in front of her.

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