Yulimar Rojas Rodriguez is a prominent Venezuelan athlete who specializes in triple and long jump. Nicknamed queen of the triple jump, Rojas is the world record holder and current Olympic champion. She is also a four-time World Champion and three-time World indoor Champion in the event. Rojas is as well a three-time Diamond League winner in triple jump. She is noted for her signature style of dyeing her short hair in bright colours.
The horizontal jumps champion has since 2014 held and continually beaten Venezuelan national records in both triple and long jump. In recognition to her excellent performance in athletics, she was awarded the Venezuelan honour, Order Jose Felix Ribas- First Class in 2016.
Rojas has received manifold awards in her career. She is the 2017 World Athlete Rising star of the Year (Female) and the 2017 and 2019 Latin American Sportswoman of the Year. Yulimar is as well the 2020 World Athlete of the Year (Female), the first Venezuelan to receive the award. She had the honour to be included in the 2022 BBC’s 100 women. In December 2023, Rojas won the 2023 World Athlete of the Year (Women’s Field).
Yulimar Rojas Age and Birthday
Born in the Venezuela’s capital and largest city Caracas on 21 October 1995, Rojas is 28 years as of 2024.
Yulimar Rojas Height
The horizontal jump champion is approximately 192 cm (6 feet and 4 inches) tall.
Yulimar Rojas Career
Early days
The Venezuelan star athlete comes from a six-sibling family and grew up in a small ranch in Anzoategul. Rojas at first wanted to play volleyball but lacked a local team and as well played basketball but lacked coaches. She then turned to athletics thence enrolling into a specialist sports school where she trained in high jump, long jump and triple jump. Her inspiration has been Asnoldo Denonish who was the only Venezuela’s Olympic medalist preceding Rojas herself.
Junior level
Rojas first competition was the 2011 South American Junior Champions held in Colombia. She competed and won in the high jump event at the age of 15 setting a new national youth record and ranking world’s number 11 that year. In the 2012 Youth championships she only managed a fourth position finish. However, she made a significant improvement during the Ibero-American Championships, finishing sixth and winning bronze in the South American U23 Championships later in the year.
In 2013, Yulimar improved her high jump personal best to 1.87 m to take the South American Junior record. She as well recorded 6.17 m in long jump and 11.94 seconds in 100 m sprint. Additionally, Rojas won two international silver medals in the Bolivian Games and the 2013 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. During the 2014 South American U23 Championships, she won a double in both long jump and triple jump events and set a new championship record of 6.36 m in long jump.
Senior Level
2014-2016: First senior medals and national record
In March 2014 aged only 18 years, Rojas won her maiden senior gold medal in high jump event in the South American Games held in Santiago, Chile. Her first gold medal in long jump was in the 2014 Pan American Sports Festival. In the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games, Rojas narrowly missed out on medals after finishing fourth in both events.
Rojas said that she felt more enticed to triple jump and expressed her desire to take it as her primary speciality. At the 2015 Venezuelan Championships, aged just 19, she confirmed herself as the country’s top all-time horizontal jumper when she set national records of 6.57 m and 14.17 m in long jump and triple jump respectively. She then won gold at her first senior level triple jump competition at the 2015 South American Championships. She also won silver at the 2015 Military World Games.
Rojas relocated to Spain in 2015 where her coach Ivan Pedroso, a retired Cuban long jumper is based. On 21 November 2016, she signed for FC Barcelona athletics division. At the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, Yulimar won silver medal in triple jump with 14.98 m. She consequently became the first Venezuelan woman to win an Olympic medal.
2017-2021: World and Olympic records
Yulimar also made history as the first Venezuelan athlete to win a gold medal in the Outdoor World Championships in her championships debut on 7 August 2017. She was sidelined in 2018 due to an injury and returned to competing in 2019. Rojas broke both her own South American and women’s World indoor triple jump records in February 2020 at the Meeting Villa de Madrid. She as well broke her own record and became the second-best female triple jumper at the time.
At the 2020, Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, Rojas set a new Olympic record of 15.41 m with her first attempt beating the previous 12 year record of 15.39 m. She also broke the World record with her final attempt with 15.67 m (5.86 m hop, 3.82 step and 5.99 jump). She smashed a long-standing Inessa Kravets’s record of 15.50 m set in 1995. Rojas consequently became the first Venezuelan female Olympic gold medalist and the third Venezuelan gold medalist overall. She was nicknamed the queen of triple jump following her dominance in the event.
2022-present: Continuous dominance
Things got even better for Rojas in the 2022 season which she began by achieving a new long jump national record and indoor personal best of 6.81 m in February. The following month, at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, she beat her own record in triple jump with 15.74 m. At the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, she defended her triple jump title landing 15.47 m.
Rojas won her fourth world title in triple jump at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in 15.08 m. In April 2023, she sustained an injury while training in Spain and underwent a surgery. She was as a result ruled out of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Yulimar Rojas Achievements and Awards
Achievements
Highest World ranking: First, 2023.
Personal bests: Triple jump: 15.67 m World record (Tokyo 2021), Long jump 7.27 m (La Nuncia), 6.88 m National record (La Nuncia). Triple jump indoors 15.74 m World record (Belgrade 2022), Long jump indoors 6.81 m National record (Lievin 2022).
Awards
- Order of Jose Felix Ribas- First Class: 2016
- World Athlete Rising Star of the Year (Female): 2017
- Latin American Sportswoman of the Year: 2017, 2019
- World Athlete of the Year (Female): 2020
- World Athlete of the Year (Women’s Field): 2023
Yulimar Rojas Net Worth
The triple jump queen has an estimated net worth of $5 million as of 2024.