World triple jump record-holder explains how she aims to return to the top of the podium in Toruń this month following Achilles surgery in 2024.
At her peak, Yulimar Rojas was one of the most dominant athletes in track and field. The triple jumper won Olympic gold in 2021, four world outdoor titles, three world indoor golds and holds the world record of 15.74m.
Yet every athlete has an Achilles heel, in Rojas’ case quite literally.
In spring of 2024 she was training in Spain to defend her Olympic title in Paris but sustained an Achilles injury which needed immediate surgery.
Her 2024 season was wiped out and she returned to triple jump late last summer to bronze in the World Championships with a mark that was almost a metre below her best.
On the eve of the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland, though, she believes she is back to top form and ready to jump further than ever.
“When you sustain an injury it’s a very hard blow and it brings you down and hurts your mind, especially when it happens in an Olympic year,” she says. “It makes you vulnerable and you fear that another injury might come and that you might never come back.
“I was very lucky in that I have the best psychologist in the form of my coach, Ivan Pedroso, plus my manager, family and partner – they all helped me believe I could be myself again. They helped me turn this event into motivation and positivity and I ended up believing that I can come back.
“Now I feel stronger and reborn from my ashes and a new Yulimar Rojas. I am pure fire and pure strength.”
Rojas succeeded fellow South American athlete Caterine Ibarguen as the queen of triple jump and the 30-year-old from Venezuela has shown the potential to become the first woman to break the 16-metre barrier in triple jump. She believes she can still do this, despite the Achilles surgery interrupting her progress, but she wasn’t always so confident.
“I had lots of doubts and uncertainties through this period of injury,” she says. “I didn’t know if I would ever be back, or when I would ever be back, and that was very hard for me.
“This is why Torun is so important to me because it will mark the ‘before and the after’ of Yulimar Rojas.
“Right now my physical shape is perfect. When it comes to my technical shape, I have good feelings, good vibes. But more than anything, I am happy to go back on the track and meet my competitors and go in front of the cameras.”
So far this year she has competed just once, with a 14.95m jump in Valencia. But in Toruń she will be going for her fourth world indoor title and during her last victory, in Belgrade in 2022, she set a world record.
Rojas’ goal is to return to the top of the podium at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in two years’ time. She was speaking here in her native Spanish, too, but is learning English and has the goal of conducting interviews in English by the time LA 2028 rolls around.
Her homeland is enduring a period of extreme instability following the capture of president Nicolás Maduro by American forces at the start of this year. But Rojas believes Venezuelans like herself have the ability to overcome problems.
“I’ve always been known for never giving up and for showing that whatever happens to us,” says Rojas, who was raised in a modest “ranchito” in a deprived area of the country, “it’s an incentive to fight for what I want in life.
“Sport is everything to me. Even though my career has taken a different path, I’ve always made it clear that my fighting spirit prevails and my desire to return has always been there.
“My mission has always been the same. My country has been going through irregular and quite difficult times. But from my perspective, I’ve tried to cope with what was happening by working harder, focusing more, and being motivated for what’s to come. My goal has been clear since the moment I got injured.”
“Torun is an opportunity to show that dreams can come true.”
