Germaine MASON

Germaine Mason was born in Jamaica to an English father and Jamaican mother and initially competed for the nation of his birth. He won medals for Jamaica at the 2000 and 2002 World Junior Championships, and was Pan American Games champion in 2003. His career nearly ended at the 2004 World Indoor Championship, where he won a bronze medal, but suffered a ruptured patella tendon in his left knee which put him out of the sport for over a year. On his return to jumping, he switched his allegiance to the land of his father and, after serving the necessary qualification period, began competing for Great Britain in 2006. His first two seasons as a Briton were not very successful, but at the Beijing Olympics he equaled his personal best to win an unexpected silver medal. His medal was the first won in the high jump by a British man in a century. Mason’s career has been plagued by injury since Beijing and he never appeared at a major championship after 2008. Mason retired in 2016, and moved back to live in Jamaica to be closer to family and friends. Sadly, the following year, he lost his life in a motorbike accident. He was on his way home after a night out with friends when he lost control of his machine and died at the scene of the accident. The friends he had been with on the night of his death included Olympic sprinters Usain Bolt and Michael Frater, and the former Bolton Wanderers footballer Ricardo Gardner. At the time of his death, Mason was still the Jamaican national high jump record holder, 14 years after setting the record mark of 2.34 in 2003, three years before switching his allegiance to Great Britain. In 2009, his 16-year-old brother Andre was jailed of life for his part in a gang killing in Southall, West London.

Personal Best: HJ – 2.34 (2003).