Vladimir Ilyich Yashchenko (Russian: Владимир Ильич Ященко) or Volodymyr Yashchenko (Ukrainian: Володимир Ященко) (12 January 1959 – 30 November 1999) was a Ukrainian member of the Soviet national team and former world record holder in the high jump (2.33 m, 2.34 m, and 2.35 m (7 ft 8+1⁄2 in).
Yashchenko first broke the record at age 18 with a jump of 2.33 m (7 ft 7+3⁄4 in), at the USA-USSR junior dual meet in June 1977 at Richmond, Virginia.[1][2] He won the 1978 European Championships high jump competition with a jump of 230 cm.[1] On 12 March 1978, he achieved the highest mark using the straddle technique.
In 1979, Yashchenko suffered a severe knee injury and his career was effectively over at age twenty;[3] he died from cirrhosis in 1999 at age forty.[1]
