In a post to Instagram today, Yulimar Rojas, reigning World and Olympic Champion in the Triple Jump, will miss the Paris 2024 Olympics.
She wrote (translated), “With a lot of pain and sadness I want to tell you that while I was training when I fell on the descent from a jump I had intense pain that was diagnosed as an injury to the left Achilles tendon. My heart is broken and I feel so sad that I want to apologize for not being able to represent you at Paris 2024.”
This means that Rojas will not have the opportunity to defend her Olympic gold medal. At the Games in Tokyo in 2021, she won in resounding fashion, jumping a then-world record distance of 15.67 meters (nearly two-thirds of a meter farther than her nearest competitor). She followed that performance with a gold at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022 and again in Budapest in 2023 (jumping 15.47 meters and 15.35 meters at those competitions, respectively).
In total, Rojas has won seven consecutive World Championship triple jumps (three indoor and four outdoor) dating back to Portland in 2016, and in addition to her gold medal in Tokyo, she was the silver medalist at the prior Games in Rio.
Rojas’s 15.74 meter triple jump from the Belgrade indoor World Championships (2022) is the current world record. She holds the longest triple jumps in history, both indoor and outdoor. Her long jump personal bests are both Venezuelan national records, with 7.27 meters outdoors and 6.81 meters indoors.
Here is the full text of Rojas’s post to Instagram, translated:
“To my Venezuela, to the family of the Olympic and sports Movement, especially to my followers; I want to inform you that I will not be able to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
With a lot of pain and sadness I want to tell you that while I was training when I fell on the descent from a jump I had intense pain that was diagnosed as an injury to the left Achilles tendon. My heart is broken and I feel so sad that I want to apologize for not being able to represent you at Paris 2024.
They have been very complex hours, in which I have questioned myself and analyzed why this has happened, however I understand that, in God’s designs, we are only instruments of his will. Today I feel very emotionally affected by not being able to represent them, the desire to defend my Olympic title excited me enormously but today I have to stop, understand this, recover and come back with great strength to continue flying together.
I want to thank my family, friends and my entire work team, who at this time have not separated from me trying to make me understand the complex situation I am going through. To all my sponsors and sports institutions in my country for all the support provided.
I wish our Venezuelan delegation great success in Paris 2024, I am already very proud of you, and to my teammates on the court, may they give their all to also achieve glory.
See you soon, with the same dreams and desire.”
