Speakers

Former pole vaulter, achieved good national results at youth level.

After being Vyacheslav Kalinichenko’s assistant coach, he became Piotr Lisek’s head coach in 2015, at the age of just 25. It began a very long period of cooperation that saw the Polish athlete win 9 international medals, achieve a PB of 6m02 and become the best Polish pole vaulter in history. Here is his achievement over the years: one silver and two bronze medals at the World Outdoor Championships (London 2017, Beijing 2015, Doha 2019), two bronze medals at the World Indoor Championships (Portland 2016, Birmingham 2018), one gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships (Belgrade 2017, Glasgow 2019, Istanbul 2023, Torun 2021).

Since 2023 he has become the technical guide of Emmanouil Karalis, who reached 6m00 in 2024 becoming the best Greek pole vaulter. At the 2024 Olympic Games, he is a bronze medallist, following continental silver in Rome 2024. These medals join the silver, shared with Lisek, from the European Championships in Istanbul 2023, and the bronze from the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow 2024.

Marco Airale is a performance coach and therapist with international experience across China and the United States. Combining a background in athletic performance, physiotherapy, and osteopathy, he has developed a holistic approach that bridges therapy and high-performance coaching.

After working with the Chinese Athletic Association, supporting athletes at the World and Asian Championships, and later joining the Tumbleweed Track Club in the United States — where he contributed to the preparation of Olympic medalists — Marco founded his own professional training group in Italy.

Today, he leads an international team of elite sprinters and hurdlers who have achieved medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, European Championships, and Commonwealth Games, continuing a journey of excellence that recently culminated with a World Championship silver medal of Amy Hunt in the women’s 200m (2025).

Philippe, pole vault coach from Clermont-Ferrand, is son of Herve D’Encausse, european record holder in 1967 with 5m28 and in 1967 with 5m37, 3 times Olympian (1964, 1968 and 1972). Philippe started his athlete career at 16, jumping as personal best 5m75 and becoming two times Olympian in Seoul 1988 (8th place) and in Barcelona 1992 (14th place).

In 1996, he ended his career as an international athlete and began his coaching career the following year. After attending INSEP PARIS, the school of sport, he start working for French Athletic Federation in charge of Coach Training. At this moment he is Director of Pole Vault National Center of Clermont-Ferrand since 2003 and French National Pole vault coach, as well as being World Athletic formator of level 1 and 2.

His athletes won 11 medals in major championship (european, world, olympics) and reached 3 top five the last major championship with three different athletes (Eugene, Munich, Istanbul, Budapest).

In addition to his work with Renaud Lavillenie, he has coached the best French pole vaulters of the last 10 years.

A former gymnast and pole vaulter, he started coaching when he was only 20 years old, carrying the tradition and history of Gruppo Asta Padova. Among his first athletes is Giorgio Piantella, Italian pole vault legend, 15 times Italian champion and PB of 5m60.

Marco is the coach of Elisa Molinarolo, Italian indoor pole vault record holder and sixth at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Elisa has represented Italy in all international events since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, confirming herself as an athlete of the highest level.

In addition to his coaching career, Marco is a university professor at the prestigious Università degli Studi di Padova and responsible for the Veneto regional committee of the FIDAL.

Scott is currently a consultant pole vault coach to athletes from the UK and New Zealand. He has been coaching for over 20 years and has coached 7 Olympians across 4 Olympic Games. In that time, he has most notably coached Holly Bradshaw (4.90m) (GBR) to Olympic Bronze, Molly Caudery (4.92m) (GBR) to World Indoor Gold, Eliza McCartney (4.94m) (NZL) to World Indoor Silver and Harry Coppell (5.85m) (GBR) to the British Record. At both the Paris Olympic Games and Tokyo World Championships, he had the distinction of being the coach to all three of New Zealand athletes who qualified for each of those Championship finals.

He has an academic background in biomechanics including publications on sprinting and triple jumping. Professionally, he has held sports leadership roles at Welsh Athletics (Head of Coaching and Performance) and UK Athletics (Head of Field and Combined Events). He lives in Loughborough, UK with his wife, Sally, and their two children, Harvey and Thea, and is an avid snooker fan!

A former French pole vaulter, he won the French national title eight times and achieved a personal best of 5.94 m in 1990. During his career he earned two European Championship bronze medals, won the 1989 World Cup, finished second in 1985 and 1992, and represented France at the Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992, placing 5th and 7th respectively.

He began coaching at the age of 15 and, since 1995, has worked as a volunteer coach, focusing primarily on men’s pole vault and decathlon. Over the years he has guided numerous athletes to the international level, including two Olympians (2004 and 2024), several French champions across youth and senior categories, and multiple members of the French national team. Among them are Mathieu and Thibaut Collet, whom he continues to co-coach since 2020 together with Philippe d’Encausse.

Together with his father, he created the Masters of Pole Vault event in Grenoble, held from 1987 to 1993, which became an important meeting point for the pole vault community.

Alongside his involvement in athletics, he is also an entrepreneur and the founder of MATSPORT and SPIRIT EUROPE, two companies he created and continues to manage today.

Johan Cassirame obtained Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Science from university of Franche – Comte (France), specialist of physiology and biomechanics.
He manages the biomechanical program from French Federation in pole vault, triple jump and long jump since 2010 for all measurement during competitions, analysis and reporting for coaches. More than 10 000 jumps analyzed with athletes from beginner to world record holder.

He collected from the All Star Perche 2023 in Clermont-Ferrand, where Mondo Duplantis raised the world record to 6m22.