YAROSLAVA MAHUCHIKH: THE WORLD’S BEST

Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh became the best female track athlete of 2024 in the world, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations (World Athletics).

This was report­ed on the fed­er­a­tion’s X account late on Sun­day, Decem­ber 1.

In the final vote Mahuchikh beat the Bel­gian Nafis­sa­ta Thi­am, who became the Olympic cham­pi­on of the 2024 Games in hep­tathlon. The Ukrain­ian ath­lete was nom­i­nat­ed for the World Ath­let­ics Award for the third con­sec­u­tive year, but won the award for the first time.

The best male track and field ath­lete in the world for 2024 is Swedish pole vaulter Arman Duplan­tis, 25, a two-time Olympic cham­pi­on and hold­er of the Olympic record of 6.25 meters.

At the end of Octo­ber, Mahuchikh, 23, was named Europe’s best female ath­lete of 2024. The Euro­pean Ath­let­ics award was pre­sent­ed to the Ukrain­ian jumper dur­ing the Gold­en Tracks cer­e­mo­ny in Skop­je, the cap­i­tal of north­ern Mace­do­nia.

At this sum­mer’s Olympic Games in Paris, Yarosla­va Mahuchikh became the gold medal­ist in her event by clear­ing 2 meters on her first attempt. Ear­li­er in 2024, she broke the wom­en’s high jump world record with a leap of 2.10 meters to win the Dia­mond League final for the third year in a row. With her leap, the Ukrain­ian shat­tered the 37-year-old record held by Ste­f­ka Kostadi­no­va of Bul­gar­ia by 1 cm.

The Ath­letes for Free­dom Foun­da­tion extends its con­grat­u­la­tions to the unbe­liev­able Yarosla­va. May you enjoy every suc­cess in ath­let­ics and beyond!