The queen, this time, will not be able to occupy her throne. Yulimar Rojas, one of the greatest athletes in the history of Latin America and the pride of Venezuelan sports, will not be able to be in Paris 2024. The owner of the triple jump world record injured the Achilles tendon in her left leg, so she was underwent surgery and will miss the opportunity to revalidate the gold obtained in Tokyo 2020. A person with humble origins, a symbol of visibility for the LGTBI community and with an incredible career, this is the story of the Wonder Woman who twisted fate’s hand.
“With a lot of pain and sadness I want to tell you that while I was training when I fell on the descent from a jump I had intense pain that was diagnosed as an injury to the left Achilles tendon”, Yulimar publicly communicated on April 12 on his social networks. The injury will prevent her from being in the Olympic Games again, but it is not something that will stop the Venezuelan champion, who during her life endured equally complicated tests before becoming the legend she is today.
HER ROOTS
Born in Caracas on October 21, 1995, Yulimar is the third of six siblings. Her father left her when she was a child to go live in the United States, which is why the figure of her mother’s partner, her stepfather Pedro Zapata, who raised her as his biological daughter, became important. From him, a former professional boxer, he inherited in a certain way the taste for sport. His childhood, however, despite being born in the capital of Venezuela, was spent in the state of Anzoátegui, in the humble neighborhood of Portezuelos. “I come from poverty where life is hard. From a little ranch without paint where humility exists, where I longed and desired to have a dignified life. That’s where it all began”, she would publish years later on Instagram, in 2017, when she was already carryieng a couple of world and Olympic medals around his neck.
The house where she lived in Portezuelos got wet every time it rained. “I was scared”, the athlete confessed in more than one interview. Their mother Yulecsis Rodríguez was their role model, a hard-working secretary who brought food to their table every day. And despite the fact that they ate mostly what they could, without following a diet typical of high performance, Yulimar developed with the body and lineage of an athlete until reaching the height of 1.92 meters that today helps him to be the best triple jumper in history.
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Like many stories that change their plot from one moment to the next, Yulimar did not always think about athletics. His first sport was volleyball, at the age of 13, but he never practiced it professionally. He began training recreationally at the Anzoátegui Sports Complex, where little by little he entered the track called by curiosity. The Venezuelan coach Jesús Velásquez discovered her and invited her to participate in athletics. It was he who bought him his first training shoes. At the age of 15 she was already selected for the national team, going from the high jump to the triple jump, in which she would specialize.
Under the eaves of champion Iván Pedroso
In 2015, a friend suggestion on Facebook would forever open the doors to high performance to her. Through the social network she would meet the Cuban Iván Pedroso, with whom she would go to train in Spain and learn from the advice of the best male triple jumper in history. From then on, everything would be golden for Yulimar.
Since then her career has been on the rise. She went from the silver medal in Rio 2016 to the gold in Tokyo 2020. She became world champion in London 2017, at the Birmingham 2018 Indoor World Cup, at the Doha 2019 World Cup and at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. In her showcases she has three Diamond League titles, the last one obtained in September 2023, her last competition before being injured and left out of Paris.
And although she will not be able to be in the 2024 Olympic Games, her legend still has chapters to write. She can say it herself, who worked hard to break a world record that rested 26 years ago and that was left in her name in 2021, when she jumped 15.67 meters in Tokyo 2020. With that impressive performance she won the gold to become the fourth athlete from Venezuela to achieve the highest medal in the Olympic Games, after the boxer Francisco Rodríguez in 1968, the taekwondo player Arlindo Gouveia in Barcelona 1992 and Rubén Limardo in fencing in 2012.
A model for the LGTBI community
Yulimar Rojas is not only a role model in sports. Her voice has served to make the LGTBI community visible and break certain prejudices regarding it. On her social networks she actively shows himself in this sense. In 2017 she spoke for the first time about her sexuality. “I hope that in my country there is a time to respect love between people of the same sex. I would like my work to be respected by those people who do not value that”, said the athlete in an interview.
And not only that, but 2021 gave another interview, this time to the media Distintas Latitudes, in which she was also proud of the example she sets. “More than winning medals, this is my greatest reward: leaving a positive message in them and in the world” the Venezuelan said. “I want them to know that everything can be achieved when we work for what we want. Sometimes it gets uphill, but we set the limits. We are all the champions of our lives. You can change the story from wherever you are and also tell it, and together celebrate it” concluded the queen of the triple jump, the great absentee from Paris 2024.
