Jack Freitag, the South African who won the world high jump title in 2003, has died at the age of 42.
According to South African reports, Freitag had been missing for two weeks before tragically being found dead with multiple gunshot wounds, with police investigating the case as a murder.
A phenomenal athlete, Freitag is among a select few athletes to have won individual world titles at the U-18, U-20 and senior levels.
Born in Warrenton in 1982, Freitag grew up in Gauteng and was exposed to athletics from an early age as his mother, Hendrina, was a national high jump champion.
Freitag’s first big success came just after his 17th birthday, when he won gold at the 1999 World U-18 Championships in Bydgoszcz.
He won 14 of 15 competitions in 2000, winning the World U20 Championships in Santiago, Chile, and a year later he set an African U20 record of 2.31m to qualify for the World Championships in Edmonton.
In early 2002, aged just 19, he set an African record of 2.37 metres. His success continued in 2003 when he cleared 2.35 metres to win gold at the World Championships in Paris, becoming the first African man to win a world title in a field event. Just six days later, his compatriot Hestry Cloete won the women’s event, making it an unforgettable high jump double for South Africa.
Freitag made his Olympic debut in 2004 but missed out on reaching the final, but returned in 2005 and improved his African record to 2.38 meters, a record that still stands today.
He struggled on and off the track in the latter stages of his career, but continued competing until 2013.