All times in UTC ·
Dashed edge = started before, or continues beyond, this day
Events on Saturday 26 May 1984 1
1984First world record -- 5.85m, Bratislava, 26 May 1984On 26 May 1984 in Bratislava, Bubka sets his first outdoor world record: 5.85m. It is the beginning of a decade-long habit of progressive record-setting that no other field athlete in history has matched. He will eventually set 17 outdoor and 18 indoor world records -- 35 in total -- between this day in Bratislava and his final record at Sestriere in July 1994. The incremental approach (usually raising the record by 1cm at a time, then stopping) is partly tactical: it maximises the bonus payments attached to each new record.