Yulimar Rojas

Rojas aspired to be a volleyball player after seeing the Venezuelan delegation in the 2008 Summer Olympics but was unable to locate coaches. The former boxer Pedro Zapata, Rojas’ stepfather, advised her to attempt athletics rather than volleyball when she was enrolled in a specialized sports school. Her instructor Jes Tuqueque Velásquez encouraged her to try athletics by instructor Jes Tuqueque Velásquez at the Simón Bolvar Sports Complex. Rojas’s first athletic event was the shot put. At the age of 15, she competed in her first high jump tournament.

Rojas got invitations to compete internationally, but her estranged father didn’t allow her to leave the country until a tournament was held in the nearby country of Colombia. She set the South American junior record in the high jump at Barquisimeto during the 2013 season, raising her personal best there to 1.87 meters. In addition, she ran the 100 meters in 11.94 seconds and the long jump 6.17 meters. She earned two international silver medals in the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships and the Bolivarian Games in 2013. She participated in the long jump for the first time in the Bolivarian Games and came in sixth in the competition. She got better at her new sport, the long jump, that year, setting a best of 6.23 m.

In the high jump, Rojas claimed her first senior gold medal, opening with the South American Games in March 2014. She then competed in the horizontal jump disciplines at the World Junior Championships, placing 17th overall in the triple jump and 11th in the long jump. In the long jump competition at the Pan American Sports Festival the same year, she earned her first gold medal. Tony lvarez, Minister of Youth and Sports, picked her to lead the returning contingent back to Venezuela and presented her with a national flag.

In 2014, she grew more fascinated with the triple jump and persuaded Velásquez to let her switch her principal discipline. She quickly broke the under-20 record for Venezuela by jumping 13.65 meters in the triple jump. At the 2015 Venezuelan Championships, Rojas cemented her status as the best jumper in the history of Venezuela by setting national records in the long jump and triple jump events of 6.57 m and 14.17 m, respectively. Debuting at the age of 19,  she won the triple jump title at the South American Championships in 2015. She went on to win silver at the 2015 Military World Games, her next competition.

Iván Pedroso, a Cuban long jumper, has been her coach since 2015. With a 14.98 m, Rojas captured the silver medal in the triple jump at the Rio Olympics 2016. Rojas won her maiden outdoor World Championship on August 7, 2017, making her the first athlete from Venezuela to ever win a gold medal at the competition. She was selected to carry the Venezuelan flag at the opening ceremony of Tokyo 2020. However she was unable to participate in the parade. Rojas later won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020. She achieved a new Olympic record of 15.41 m with her first jump. She increased this on her last try to 15.67 m, shattering the previous record held by Inessa Kravets from 1995.

Her biggest rivalry was against two-time world champion and Rio 2016 Olympic champion Caterine Ibargüen Mena. Caterine is a former Colombian track and field athlete. Both of them faced off at the Rio Olympics 2016, in which Caterine emerged victorious. The duo again encountered at the World Championship (Outdoor) 2017 where Rojas clinched victory over Ibargüen by jumping a best effort of 14.91 which was 2cms further than her rival. Thus, she became the first athlete from Venezuela in history to win the gold medal in the championship.

Yulimar Rojas was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 21, 1995. She was raised in a Ranchito in the Altavista neighborhood of Pozuelos, Anzoátegui. Her family had relocated there for her stepfather to pursue work in the oil sector. She has five siblings. Following Rojas’ accomplishments, the family was offered better accommodation in 2014. She is an LGBTQIA+ activist in her native nation and a lesbian. She is renowned for dyeing her short hair in bright colors. She was appointed as the face of the Banco de Venezuela in April 2022.