The Ukrainian jumper broke a world record that had stood for 37 years. Simply fantastic!
Mikhail Chesalin July 7, 2024, 22:45 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Yaroslava Maguchikh rose higher than anyone else in the world! See how it happened.
A historic event has taken place in world athletics. On 7 July 2024, one of the oldest world records has been broken. Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh has cleared the bar at a height that no one has ever conquered.
No. 1 in the jumping sector
Yaroslava is 22 years old and is increasingly emerging as a star in world athletics. Her greatest potential was seen in the late 2010s, when her main rival in the field was Russia’s Maria Lasitskene, but the Ukrainian always seemed to be missing something.
Perhaps there was not enough competitive experience, but, as you know, you win. And in 2023, at the World Championships in Budapest, Maguchikh won the title of the best in the world for the first time in his career.
Yaroslav Maguchikh
Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images
Yaroslava is now the number one in the show jumping category. Her rivals can only count on victory if something goes wrong. But at the Diamond League stage in Paris everything went well. Maguchikh left all her rivals far behind (her closest pursuer, Nikola Olislagers, stopped at just 2.01) and decided to try to break the record.
A record that turned 37 years old
Bulgarian athlete Stefka Kostadinova cleared the bar with a height of 2.09 meters at the 1987 World Championships, and since then no one has been able to surpass the achievement of the champion, who will turn 60 in 2025.
How that great record was established:
Video
The great battle between Bykova and Kostadinova ended with a record. No one has jumped higher in 33 years!
The closest to surpassing this achievement was Croatian athlete Blanka Vlasic, world champion in 2007 and 2009. She set the bar at 2.10 several times, but never surpassed it.
Russian high jump fans, of course, really wanted Olympic and three-time world champion Maria Lasitskene to set a new world record. However, she only took off at 2.08. And then her brilliant career was essentially cut short by the suspension of athletes, and then of all our athletes.
Maguchikh did what Vlasic and Lasitskene could not do.
Both happy and sad
He reached the height on the first try. Here’s how it went:
All rights to the video belong to Wanda Diamond League. You can watch it on the organization’s official YouTube channel.
Yaroslav can only be applauded. Forget the political context and congratulate him. He did what had long seemed impossible.
Of course, this result will give her confidence. The Olympic Games are coming up, where Yaroslava is going as the undisputed favourite. In Paris, she should win the first gold medal of her career. And then the race for the second begins.
I am happy for Yaroslava. And it is sad for our sport.
The industry misses Maria Lasitskene and our other girls very much. When they struggled with both rivals and the bar at prohibitive heights, the battle for the world record developed in completely different colours.
But for now everything is as it is. There is a holiday in Paris, even without us.
Lasitskene and Maguchikh will no longer compete:
“I don’t think you understand me.” The human drama of the champion friends from Russia and Ukraine
