Yulimar Rojas

Born in Caracas and brought up in Anzoátegui,[3] she had her first success at the 2011 South American Junior Championships in Athletics, where she won the high jump.[4][5] She was defeated by younger opposition at the South American Youth Championships in 2012, managing only fourth.[6] She performed better in higher level competition that year, jumping 1.75 m (5 ft 8 ³⁄₄ in) to take sixth at the Ibero-American Championships and claiming the bronze medal at the South American Under-23 Championships.[7]

In the 2013 season she improved her personal best to 1.87 m (6 ft 1 ¹⁄₂ in) with a jump in Barquisimeto, which was a South American junior record.[8] Two international silver medals came that year at the 2013 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships (losing to Daniellys Garay on countback) and the Bolivarian Games, where she was second to Kashani Ríos. She also competed in the long jump at the latter event, placing sixth.[9][10] Improving in her new event, she had a best of 6.23 m (20 ft 5 ¹⁄₄ in) in long jump that year.[8]

Rojas expanded her oeuvre in 2014 and began regularly competing in both horizontal and vertical jump events. Starting with the South American Games in March, she claimed her first senior gold medal in the high jump, holding off Kashani Ríos.[11] An appearance in the horizontal jumps followed at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where she came eleventh in the long jump and 17th overall in the triple jump.[8] The Pan American Sports Festival brought her her first gold medal in the long jump, as she defeated Irisdaymi Herrera of Cuba.[12] In recognition, she was chosen to lead the returning delegation back to Venezuela and was given the national flag by Tony Álvarez, the Minister of Youth and Sports.[13] A long jump/triple jump double followed at 2014 South American Under-23 Championships in Athletics, which included a championship record of 6.36 m (20 ft 10 ¹⁄₄ in) in the former event.[14] At senior level, she narrow missed out on medals in both those disciplines at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games, placing fourth twice.[15][16]

Rojas established herself as her country's best ever jumper at the 2015 Venezuelan Championships, setting national records of 6.57 m (21 ft 6 ¹⁄₂ in) and 14.17 m (46 ft 5 ³⁄₄ in) to win the long and triple jump events.[17] At age nineteen, she won the continental triple jump title at the 2015 South American Championships in Athletics, winning gold on her debut at the competition.[18]

Rojas won the silver medal in triple jump at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games with a 14.98 m, to be placed behind the Colombian Caterine Ibargüen, who took the gold after a jump on the 15.17 m, with which she broke her personal record. On 7 August 2017 she won her first World Championship in the open air, winning in an epic duel to Ibargüen, a world champion and current Olympic champion, becoming the first Venezuelan athlete of the history in obtaining a gold medal in those contest. In her fifth attempt, Rojas jumped to 14.91 m, only 2 centimeters above the Colombian, who in her last two jumps was unable to pass this mark, conforming to the silver medal and losing the opportunity to win her third consecutive gold medal after those achieved in Moscow 2013 and Beijing 2015.

• High jump – 1.87 m (6 ft 1 ¹⁄₂ in) (2014)
• Long jump – 6.57 m (21 ft 6 ¹⁄₂ in) (2015)
• Triple jump – 15.43 m (50 ft 7 ¹⁄₄ in) (2020)

Through her social media,[19] Yulimar Rojas makes no mystery about belonging to the LGBT[20] community and dating a young woman, who refers to herself on her social media as "Rusmely Rojas",[21] though no recognition of couple (union or marriage) exists for same-sex couples in Venezuela.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yulimar Rojas.

• Yulimar Rojas at World Athletics
• Yulimar Rojas at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

Records
Preceded by Tatyana Lebedeva	Women's Triple Jump Indoor World Record Holder 21 February 2020 – present	Incumbent