Shawn Barber, the Canadian pole vault record holder and 2015 world champion, has died from medical complications. He was 29.
Barber died Wednesday at home in Kingwood, Texas, his agent, Paul Doyle, confirmed to the Associated Press. A cause of death was not yet known. Barber had been experiencing health issues.
“More than just an incredible athlete, Shawn was such a good-hearted person that always put others ahead of himself,” Doyle said Thursday. “It’s tragic to lose such a good person at such a young age.”
Barber was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but his father, George, was born in Ontario. The family split time between the US and Canada.
He is the Canadian record holder in the men’s pole vault at 6.00m, which he set in January 2016 in Reno, Nevada. Barber won the 2015 world championships in Beijing, China, with a mark of 5.90m.
He also won the NCAA outdoor title in 2015 for the University of Akron, earning the second of back-to-back indoor titles that season. Barber won one of his five Canadian titles that year as well.
A year later, Barber made the final at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in a pole vault event won by Thiago Braz of Brazil.
He’s survived by his mother, Ann; father, George; and brother, David.