Yaroslava shared her plans for the future.
Paris 2024 Olympic champion in high jump Yaroslava Maguchikh told how long she plans to continue her sports career.
The 23-year-old track and field athlete said that she plans to compete in two more Olympic Games – in 2028 in Los Angeles (USA) and in 2032 in Brisbane (Australia).
In particular, Yaroslava is determined to break the Olympic record for women's high jump, which is 2.06 meters.
“Of course, I want to jump even higher, fight for even more gold medals. I really want to be a two-time Olympic champion. Of course, the Olympic record has not yet been broken – 2.06 m. I really want to break it, we are working towards it.
A new training cycle will begin, four years before Los Angeles, and my goal is to break this Olympic record.
Up to what age do women usually compete in our sport? It's individual, but they jump until about 35. And so I have two more Olympics in my plans. That is, Australia in 2032 and that's it. I'll be 31, and I can still jump,” Maguchikh said in an interview with the We Are Ukraine project.
This year, Maguchikh became an Olympic champion for the first time, winning“gold” at the 2024 Games in Paris. This is her second Olympic medal in her career; in Tokyo 2020, the Ukrainian won bronze.
In addition, in 2024, Yaroslava won “gold” at the European Championships and “silver” at the World Indoor Championships, and also became the champion of the Diamond League, winning all the stages in which she took part.
In early July of this year, Maguchikh broke the world record in women's high jump. At the Diamond League stage in Paris, the Ukrainian was the first in history to clear a height of 2.10 meters. Yaroslava surpassed the achievement of Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova, who jumped 2.09 meters at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.
Recall that Maguchikh actively helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After winning the Olympic gold, she donated 500 thousand hryvnia to the charity organization “Patronage Service of Angels of Azov”, and then donated a million hryvnia to Igor Lachenkov's collection. Yaroslava also donated a million hryvnia to animal rights activists.