Bubka began pole-vaulting at age 9. When his coach, Vitaly Petrov, was transferred to Donetsk, Ukraine, Bubka, at age 15, followed. Bubka won the pole vault at the 1983 world track-and-field championships in Helsinki, Finland, with a vault of 5.7 metres (18 feet 8.25 inches). In subsequent years, Bubka changed the standards of pole-vaulting, setting numerous world records.

Bubka first cleared 6 metres (19 feet 8.25 inches), long considered an unattainable height, in Paris on July 13, 1985. In 1988 in Nice, France, he neared the 6.1-metre barrier with a vault of 6.06 metres (19 feet 10.5 inches), which was his second world record in five weeks. Bubka was unable to better his leap at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but his vault of 5.9 metres (19 feet 4.25 inches) won the gold medal. Bubka had increased the world record by 21 cm (8.25 inches) between 1984 and 1988, a greater gain in 4 years than other pole-vaulters had achieved in the previous 12. During this period he was named the Soviet Union's top sportsman three years in a row (1984–86).

In 1991, in San Sebastián, Spain, he became the first pole-vaulter to jump 6.1 metres, but a year later, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, Bubka failed to place in the event. In 1994, in Sestriere, Italy, he broke his previous world record with a jump of 6.14 metres (20 feet 1.75 inches). Bubka attended the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, but an injury prevented him from competing. In 1997, however, Bubka won an unprecedented sixth world championship in pole vaulting. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, Bubka competed but failed to qualify for the final. He retired from competition and became an active member of the International Olympic Committee.

Bubka's speed and strength enabled him to use poles that were unusually long and stiff for better catapulting action. He was noted for a vaulting style in which he gripped his pole several inches higher than other competitors.