Who is Lavern Spencer?How Can She Jump So High?

The first thing that jumps out about Lavern Spencer of St. Lucia is that although she is a high jumper,she is only an inch above five feet. Don’t be fooled by her height. She has been the best female high jumper in the Caribbean for a decade with a PB of 1.98 metres (that is 6 feet 6 inches), the national record holder in St. Lucia and by extension the Caribbean.

Spenser was the CARIFTA Games under 20 girl’s high jump gold medalist in 2001, and the silver medalist in 2002 and 2003. She is a pan Am gold medalist, a CAC gold medalist and made the finals at the World Championships twice.

In spite of her achievements Lavern is not a well-known name in Caribbean. It may be because she is a high jumper in a region of the world where the premium is on speed. It may also be because she has not been able to land the big one. At the recent IAAF World Indoor Championship,March 17 -20, 2016 at the Oregon Convention Centre, USA she represented St. Lucia and the Caribbean very well and tied for 5th place with Sofie Skoog of Sweden. The emergence of the winner schoolgirl and subsequently announced professional, Vasti Cunningham who achieved 1.96 and is buoyed by the star power of her father, former American Football quarterback Randall Cunningham, may give the women’s high jump the boost it needs.

At thirty-one years old, she has been representing St. Lucia and in the absence of any other consistent female high jumpers, by default the Caribbean since 2001. Her consistency over the years has gained her some local recognition in St. Lucia where she is the brand ambassador for Cable and Wireless and is featured on the cover of the local telephone directory. She has qualified for the Rio Olympics and if her plans are achieved a lot of Caribbean people will know Lavern Spencer.