Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the high jump Olympics gold at the Paris Games. The 22-year-old Ukrainian athlete, who earlier in the season improved Stefka Kostadinova’s world record by clearing 210cm in Paris, triumphed in Paris with 200cm, which she cleared on her first attempt.
She then made two faults at 202cm and went to 204cm, where she also failed one attempt.
It’s the second Olympic medal for Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who was a bronze medalist three years ago in Tokyo. Thus, the Ukrainian already has world titles outdoors (Budapest 2023) and indoors (Belgrade 2022), as well as European gold medals outdoors (Munich 2022 and Rome 2024) and indoors (Torun 2021 and Istanbul 2023).
This winter’s world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers (Australia) won a second Olympic silver medal after Tokyo, after also clearing 200cm in Paris, but at the third attempt.
The bronze medal was shared between the 2023 Eugene world champion Eleanor Patterson and the 2024 Roma European bronze medalist Iryna Gerashchenko (Ukraine), both clearing 195cm from their first attempt.
Serbia’s big star and hope for an honor in Paris, Angelina Topic, did not start in the final after suffering a fractured tibia during the warm-up in qualifying. With the injury, she barely managed to secure a place in the final, but it turned out that her injury was much more serious.