One for the road, says Bubka

Yet at 36, Bubka’s competitive CV includes only a solitary Olympic medal, his precious gold from Seoul in 1988. "If you look at my record at the Olympics, it is not normal," Bubka said Tueday.

"For me, Olympic years have always been difficult. In 1984, I was young, energetic, but we had the boycott. In 1988, I won, but only on the last jump. In 1992, I lost only one competition all year, but that was at the Olympics. In 1996, injury. This year, injury again. Problems, problems, problems, always in Olympic year."

Bubka confirmed the Sydney Olympics would be his last major competition before retirement, indicating he might have given up by now had the lure of the Games not kept him fighting against constant injuries. "The Olympic Games are the best thing you can wish for," he said. "I want to be in the stadium and I would like to try again to be good and maybe to win something. This is the dream for all athletes. The feeling of the Olympics has an unbelievably high value.

After three years plagued by injury and surgery – most recently in May on his Achilles tendon – Bubka believes he has one last big vault left in him. Despite clearing 5.60m indoors earlier this year on his comeback, his outdoor performances have been blighted by frequently no-heighting at meetings – reminiscent of his 1992 failure at the Barcelona Olympics.

Yet asked if he could clear 6m in the Olympic final, a height he has not managed in competition since 1997, the year of his last world title, Bubka confidently answered: "Why not? The question here will be how the weather is, because the stadium is huge and the weather can be very windy, and it could bring a lot of surprises." His biggest opponent, he said, is "My body. After you reach 30, there are always problems with injury, that is just normal, but it does stop you doing what you want to do, or to do things as you did before. But I’m still fighting to be in good shape and to get a good result."

After his retirement from competition, Bubka says he is planning to spend more time at home in Monte Carlo, working with his teenaged sons Vitali and Sergey Jr on their burgeoning tennis careers, and also fulfilling his duties as one of the first athlete members of the International Olympic Committee.