Known as the “Queen of the Triple Jump”, Yulimar Rojas is a Venezuelan athlete who has broken the women’s triple jump world record. She is an Olympic champion as well as a three-time World Champion (2017 London, 2019 Doha, and 2022 Eugene) and three-time World Indoor Champion (2016 Portland, 2018 Birmingham, and 2022 Belgrade). She has held the triple jump and long jump national records for Venezuela since 2014 and has consistently beaten them. She has been awarded the José Félix Ribas First Class Order of Venezuela.
Rojas, who was raised in an underprivileged section of Venezuela, excelled in other sports as a teen, but she struggled to train because of a lack of equipment. She took up athletics, and before finding a passion for the triple jump, she excelled at high jump and running. In order to continue her athletics training with coach Iván Pedroso, she relocated to Guadalajara, Spain, in 2015. She quickly rose to the top of the competition. In 2021, she resumed serious long jump competition after spending several years specialising in the triple jump only.
With a new indoor personal best and national record of 6.81 m (22 ft 4 in), Rojas began her 2022 season in the long jump. She participated in the triple jump event in March at the World Indoor Athletics Final in Madrid, where she achieved a world-leading leap and the second-highest indoor triple jump by a female (just short of her own record). She then broke this record on March 20 at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
