Ryan Hvidston

Athlete (2025)

Track and Field

He cleared 5.05 metres in pole vault at the Pan American junior track and field championships in Santiago, Chile. Before 1995, no junior-aged athlete in Saskatchewan had jumped that high. Thirty years later, no junior has ever gone higher.

Ryan Hvidston knows rare air.

When he was in Grade 11 at Bishop James Mahoney High School he broke the meet record in senior pole vault at the provincial high school championships.

In Grade 12, he broke the meet record in pole vault at the Bob Adams city high school championships. At provincials two weeks later, he broke his year-old Saskatchewan record.

In Ryan’s first season with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, he broke the meet record at the Canada West championships. In Season 2, he broke his conference record again.

Competing for almost 10 years, he got faster, grew stronger, went higher.

Better became best. He is the first vaulter in Canada to win the national junior title three times, winning nationals in Sherbrooke in 1993, Ottawa in 1994 and Abbotsford in 1995. He is the first Huskie vaulter to win a medal in the Canadian championships four times.

At the World University Games in Beijing he no-heighted. Hey, that’s vaulting. An event that demands going upside down and backwards will always throw you a twist.

Ryan Hvidston has coached pole vault for 30 years and is a founding member of the Penticton Track and Field Club in B.C.