Yaroslava Mahuchikh

Date of birth
September 19, 2001

Weight
55 kg

Height
1,80 cm

Nationality
Ukraine

Discipline
High jump

Medals:
Olympics
🥉1
World Cup
🥇2🥈2
European
🥇3

Social

Date of birth
September 19, 2001

Weight
55 kg

Height
1,80 cm

Nationality
Ukraine

Discipline
High jump

Medals:
Olympics
🥉1
World Cup
🥇2🥈2
European
🥇3

Social

Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the Ukrainian high jump ace.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh was born in Dnipro on September 19, 2001. She is 1.80 centimeters tall and weighs 55 kilograms. She is a Ukrainian jumper and champion in the high jump.

An Olympic bronze medal winner in Tokyo 2020, she won world gold in Budapest 2023 and Belgrade 2022 (indoor) and European gold in Munich 2022, as well as world silvers in Doha 2019 and Oregon 2022. To date his personal best is 2.06 meters, achieved at the Banská Bystrica meeting in February 2021.

Early career

Yaroslava Mahuchikh is a young Ukrainian athlete who has captured the world’s attention with her exceptional high jump skills. Her passion for sports began as a child, but before she turned to high jumping she also practiced other sports, such as karate.

When she first started competing in the high jump she could not get over 1.40 meters, but then at the Ukrainian championships she jumped over 1.55 and so she realized that she had the potential to continue in the discipline she was so passionate about, helped since she was 13 years old by Tatiana Stepanova, her coach.

Mahuchikh won the gold medal at the U18 World Championships in Nairobi in 2017; in 2020 he made his indoor season debut by setting the under-20 world indoor record with 2.01 meters at the Oleksiy Demanyuk Memorial in Lviv, Ukraine, a record he then broke a few days later, jumping 2.02 in Karlsruhe. In addition to the under-20 world record Mahuchik equaled and then broke the absolute Ukrainian indoor record held by Vita Palamar since 2008, when Yaroslava was just six years old.

Internationally, however, he took silver in Doha in 2019, at just 18 years old, and in Oregon in 2022. He won Olympic bronze in Tokyo 2020 and went on to win gold in Munich in 2022 and Budapest in 2023.

When the war began in Ukraine, Yaroslava Mahuchikh was training for the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, which she went on to win, and was very close to competing. She had to flee her city, Dnipro, in order to reach Serbia and be able to train. Afterwards, she went to train in Germany, in Erlangen, so that she could take part in Diamond League competitions without facing further travel.

Diet and nutrition: Yaroslava Mahuchikh has to follow a very restrictive diet because high jumping is a discipline that requires a rather light physique to optimize results in competition. Away from the races, she likes to eat typical foods and when she travels she loves to taste versions of coffee and tea characteristic of the country she is in.

Braids: Every time she competes, Yaroslava Mahuchikh braids her hair, not only as a matter of practicality, but because achieving the hairstyle helps her focus before the competition. Today it is one of its most distinctive features.

The Olympic Games as a union between countries: “The Olympic Games, for me, unite all countries. The Olympic Games help the world.” After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, she repeatedly questioned whether it was worth continuing to compete, far away from her family and loved ones, but she believes that sport serves to bring people together, so she continued to compete and win.