Paul Just won two silver medals in the pole vault at the CIAU championships in 1991 and 1992 and was named a CIAU all-Canadian in each of those years. A member of York's track and field team for four seasons (1988-92), he won the OUAA silver medal in his final year with a jump of 5.30 metres that still has him third on York's all-time list. He was named an OUAA all-star that year and also won two OUAA team bronze medals (1990-91, 1991-92) in his time at York. He also excelled in the classroom and was named to the Dean's List for outstanding academic achievement in 1991 and 1992. Just went on to represent Canada at a number of international competitions, finishing 16th at the 1988 Olympic Games, fifth at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and 10th at the 1991 World University Games.
A dream formed as a child came true for Paul Just when he qualified for the Canadian Olympic team in the pole vault.
The road to the pinnacle of his sport began while watching on TV as Greg Joy won the silver medal in the high jump at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, and he decided that he was going to be a high jumper at the Olympics. His athletic event of choice changed in high school at the encouragement of his older brother, but the goal never did.
“From that moment on I wanted to make the Olympic team,” Just says. “It was a deep desire that I had for many years to qualify for the Olympics and become the best I could be in the pole vault.”
Fast forward to the summer of 1988. Years of training – mostly without a coach and after almost giving up the sport when he didn’t realize there were opportunities to compete after high school – came down to one final jump at the Olympic trials. He’d already won the competition but still needed to hit the Olympic standard of 5.40 metres to qualify, something he’d been trying for all year to no avail.
Just went all out on his final jump, even switching to a bigger pole he had never used, and celebrated before hitting the mat after clearing the bar. The moment was so spectacular that CBC used it as part of their Olympic preview leading up to and throughout the Games.
The experience was everything he imagined it would be.
“When you put on the uniform and you’re waiting outside the stadium to walk in with the Canadian team, and then you walk in and there are 100,000 people screaming, the hair on your body stands up on end because of the electricity and the emotion. You feel so good about yourself because of what you accomplished, and to share that with other people that you’ve trained with, it’s a very emotional experience.”
By the time Just was ready for student-athlete life, York had become the pole vault mecca of university competition. He arrived soon after returning home from Seoul, fresh off a 16th-place showing, and York’s track and field program benefitted greatly from his talents. In four years with the team he won two national silver medals, earning CIAU all-Canadian honours on both occasions, and helped the Yeomen win back-to-back OUAA bronze medals in 1991 and 1992.
“Competing for York kept me in the sport [after returning from the Olympics] and I enjoyed being on the varsity team. I got to spend a lot of time with my teammates because of all the training and travelling, and the atmosphere was always fun.”
After retiring from the sport for good in 1996, Just settled into a career running his own business distributing athletic equipment across Canada. Although his Olympic experience was more than two decades ago, he still talks about his final jump at the Olympic trials as if it happened yesterday, the detail so vivid it is clear how much the moment meant to him.
“It was all those years of training and all of the dreams and all of the time spent thinking about making the Olympics. Everything came together in that one jump and I will never forget that.”
