Spiegelburg showed her talent for the event from a young age, winning the World Youth title in 2001 before becoming the European Junior champion two years later.

She twice achieved marks of 4.56 m on the European circuit that season and came sixth at the end of year 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final.

[3] She came seventh at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and equalled her outdoor best at the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final to take the gold medal.

This gained her a berth at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, where she cleared 4.65 m – the second highest performance – but ended up in fourth place by merit of countback.

[5] She equalled her outdoor best of 4.70 m at the Memorial van Damme, taking third place,[6] but managed only sixth at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final.

[1] In the 2010 outdoor season Spiegelburg started with a win at the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix – the first stop on the inaugural 2010 IAAF Diamond League.