Liadagmis Povea Rodríguez

She is a Cuban triple jumper, native of San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río. Bronze medalist at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla and at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima.

She was born in San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río. She began her primary studies at the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes" school in her hometown, where she completed up to 5th grade.

She was recruited for the Sports Initiation School "Ormani Arenado Llonch" in her native province where she studied from 6th through 10th grade. From there she moved to the High Performance Training Center "Giraldo Córdova Cardín" where she completed upper secondary education. Subsequently she graduated as a Physical Education teacher from the EPEF "Comandante Manuel Fajardo" and in December 2022 she graduated as a Bachelor in Physical Culture from the University of Sciences of Physical Culture and Sport "Manuel Fajardo".

She began practicing sports at age eight. Since she had long limbs, her father spoke with a coach from her municipality to have her evaluated and he accepted her. Initially she registered for three sports at the same time, but she ultimately decided on athletics.

During her pioneer, school, and youth stages she participated in numerous events: Pioneer Games, where she obtained gold medals in high jump and hurdle race events in 2003, 2004, and 2005, when she was in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade respectively, and gold in high jump in 2006, while in 5th grade.

Sports Career

2013 - 2016
In the international arena her first achievement was the silver medal obtained at the XV World Junior Athletics Championship, held in Eugene, United States, in July 2014, where she became world junior runner-up that year with a mark of 14.07 meters. During the XVII Pan American Games in Toronto 2015, held in Canada in July of that year, she finished in sixth place with a mark of 13.97 meters.

The following year she would win the gold medal at the Cuba Athletics Cup that took place in March at the Panamericano Stadium, where she won with a mark of 14.56 meters, and by then she had already achieved the qualifying standard for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. As part of preparation for the Rio Olympics she competed at the Stanislas-Nancy Athletic Meet in France, which took place on June 15, 2016, where she won with a modest mark of 13.69 meters.

At the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 she failed to qualify for the twelve finalists in the triple jump event.

2017 - 2021
The year 2017 began for Povea with the gold medal at the Cuba Athletics Cup held at the Panamericano Stadium in Havana, with a mark of 14.28 meters, which could not be recorded as her best mark of the year and was not validated for the world competition due to wind speed.

In May 2017 she competed at the Baie Mahault Meet in Guadeloupe where she achieved a mark of 14.11; a mark she would surpass that same month at the Barrientos Memorial in Havana, where she reached 14.45 meters (just nine centimeters short of her personal record). That result also earned her qualification for the London World Championships.

On the way to the important event she competed at the Golden Gala in Rome, the fourth stop of the Diamond League (June 2017), where she finished in sixth place with a mark of 14.15 meters; a mark she could not surpass at the London World Championships, where she finished in 22nd place among 26 competitors with a very poor 13.55, far from her best marks of the season.

On April 21, 2018 at the Granada International Meet she won the gold medal with a jump of 14.04, followed by her compatriot Davisleidis Velazco.

She was part of the Cuban delegation that represented Cuba at the XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games held in Barranquilla, Colombia, from July 19 to August 3, 2018, which was honored on July 7 before the monument that holds the ashes of the leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro, in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, where she won the bronze medal.

She won the Manuel Pérez Ruiz Jumps Festival that took place in the city of Camagüey in February 2019 with a mark of 14.42 meters.

Liadagmis Povea surprised with a mark of 15.05 meters (although a favorable wind of 3.1 m/s did not allow the mark to be ratified) during the Cuba Athletics Cup in March 2019. It was an excellent competition for her in which she had a sequence that included jumps of 14.84m, 14.88m, 14.50m, and 14.69m (although none could be made official due to wind).

On July 5 she achieved her personal best mark at the eighth stop of the Diamond League held in Lausana, Switzerland, landing at a distance of 14.77 meters. This mark helped her finish in third place, surpassed by Colombian Caterine Ibarguen (14.89 m) and Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas (14.82 m). Determined to establish herself firmly in the elite of world triple jump, she continued her excellent streak of results winning the silver medal at the Monaco stop held on July 11 at the Louis II Stadium in the principality of Monaco.

Just over a week later she would win another silver medal; this time at the Padua Athletic Meet in Italy, in which she was only surpassed by the stellar Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas. Povea managed to extend to 14.64 meters, but the South American had a second better jump than the Cuban (14.87).

She represented Cuba at the XVIII Pan American Games in Lima 2019 in which she obtained a bronze medal with a mark of 14.60 meters, behind Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas (15.11) and Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts (14.77).

At the Diamond League stop held in Paris that same month of August she reached second place with a jump of 14.75, again surpassed by Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas.

On August 29 at the last stop of the Diamond League in Zurich she finished in third place with a mark of 14.49 meters, surpassed by Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts with a mark of 14.93, while the season leader Yulimar Rojas was not at her best and finished second with 14.74 meters.

She competed at the World Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar, in October where an unexpected performance left the Caribbean athlete with a maximum mark of 14.08 meters, unable to qualify for the final, finishing 15th in the elimination round.

On February 21, 2020, she finished in second place at the Indoor Track Tour, held in Madrid, Spain, with a mark of 14.52 meters, which became her personal best on indoor tracks.

At the end of November 2020 she arrives in Portugal, where she will complete a training base to face the so-called winter phase, in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, postponed due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 to 2021.

On January 29, 2021 she obtained the gold medal at the Karlsruhe meet in Germany, the first stage of the World Athletics Indoor Tour 2021, with a personal mark of 14.54 meters, surpassing Finnish Kristiina Makela (14.13) and Belarusian Viyaleta Skvartsova (14.10). On February 24 at the international meet in Madrid, she finished third with 14.02 meters behind American Tori Franklin (14.22) and Portuguese Patricia Mamona (14.21), adding five points to the season ranking of the World Athletics Indoor Tour to reach 15 and share the final leadership with Franklin.

On June 19 of this year with a mark of 14.45 meters, she finished in fourth place at the Madrid meet in Spain, which served as preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, to be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, and days later, on June 29 she won the gold medal at the Castellón Meeting, Memorial José Antonio Cansino, also in Spain, with a mark of 14.70 meters.

On August 1, 2021, at the XXXII Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games postponed due to COVID-19, she achieved a commendable fifth place with a mark of 14.70 meters.

On August 26 of this year she finished in seventh place at the Diamond League in Lausana, where she barely reached 14.06 meters to add a couple of points to her accumulated total in the ranking of the most important athletics circuit in the world.

2022 - 2024
On February 4, 2022 she reached sixth place at the Miramas Indoor Meet, a commune in France, with a jump of 13.79 meters.

On March 20, 2022 at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade, she finished in fifth place with her best mark of the season, 14.45 meters.

On May 22 at the Iberoamerican Athletics Championship in Alicante 2022 in Spain, she obtained a silver medal with a mark of 14.41 meters, surpassed by her teammate Leyanis Pérez.

On June 5, at the Mohammed VI Athletic Meet in Rabat, Morocco, she finished in sixth place with a mark of 14.27 meters.

On June 18 at the start of the Barrientos Memorial Athletics held at the Panamericano Stadium in Havana, she won the gold medal with a mark of 14.34, surpassing her teammate Leyanis Pérez.

On July 16 in her first outing at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon 2022 held in the city of Eugene, United States, she could only reach 14.01 meters, far from what she usually does and what was needed to stay "alive" in this demanding competition.

On January 27, 2023 at the Karlsruhe Indoor Athletic Meet in Germany, the first gold-rated stop of the world indoor tour of the season, she won the gold medal with a personal best indoor mark of 14.64 meters, achieved on her third attempt.

On February 8 at the meet in the French city of Mondeville, she finished in second place with a jump of 14.39 meters on the fourth attempt. She had a very stable competition and recorded distances of 14.36, 14.14, and twice 14.27 meters.

On February 11, 2023 at the Paris Indoor Meeting, another of the meets scheduled by the Caribbean field and track athletes on their winter tour through European venues, Povea climbed for the third consecutive time to the awards podium at the emblematic Accor Arena in the capital of France, after winning her second competition of the year, this time with a mark of 14.26 m to record her name as the event record holder. On February 15 at the Lievin athletics meet in France, she again achieved the gold medal with a personal best indoor mark of 14.81 meters.