Yarisley Silva Rodríguez

In 1999, at the age of 12, she began practicing Pole Vaulting, a sport in which she has achieved excellent results.
Glory of Cuban sports, Cuban Pole Vaulting athlete. Silver medalist at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2006. Champion at the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games. She won the gold medal at the Grand Prix of track and field in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2012 with a record of 4.65 meters recognized as a tournament record.

On February 17, 2012 she won the gold medal with a jump of 4.70 m at the International Stabhochsprung Meet in the city of Potsdam, Germany, a result that positioned her 5th in the world rankings.

On May 27 of the same year she became champion at the track and field meet held at Panamericano Stadium in Havana in recognition of the centennial of the IAAF, with a record of 6.40 meters. Silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

2006
At age 19 she participated in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena 2006, winning the silver medal with a jump of 3.95 meters. Since then she has made progress that has placed her among the leading female pole vaulters of the present.

2007
In May she participates in the II ALBA Sports Games winning the Gold medal with a jump of 4.15 meters.
At the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro 2007 she finished third with a result of 4.30 meters.

2008
The Beijing, China Olympic Games was one of the first competitions where she faced pole vaulters from around the world, finishing in thirteenth place with a result of 4.15 meters.

2009
At the Central American and Caribbean Track and Field Championship in Havana, she obtained first place with a result of 4.40 meters.

2011
At the track and field meet in Barcelona in August, she set a new competition record with 4.66 meters for that competition. She obtained fifth place at the World Track and Field Championship in Daegu, South Korea with a jump of 4.70 meters, a national record for that specialty in Cuba. In September at the track and field meet in Berlin she finished in second place after failing to exceed 4.71 meters. The most important result of that year was first place achieved at the XVI Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011, Mexico with a jump of 4.75 meters, beating world champion Fabiana Murer, a Games record and bringing the national record in that specialty to that height.

2012

On February 17 she won the gold medal with a jump of 4.70m at the International Stabhochsprung Meet in the city of Potsdam, Germany, despite this being her first time competing on an indoor track throughout her entire career. This result positioned her 5th in the world rankings.

On May 17 she wins the gold medal at the Grand Prix of track and field in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a record of 4.65 meters, five centimeters higher than what she achieved earlier that month in Venezuela and converted into a tournament record. For the second time she beat Fabiana Murer.

On May 27 she wins at the track and field meet held at Panamericano Stadium in East Havana, Havana in recognition of the centennial of the IAAF, with a record of 6.40 meters.

On August 6, 2012 she wins the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, with a record of 4.75 equal to that of American Jennifer Suhr and bronze went to Elena Isinbaeva.

2013
2013 started in great form for the Cuban, as she managed to break her personal record on three occasions: first in February in the city of Havana during the Cuba Track and Field Cup, with a mark of 4.81 m; and later in April in the city of Des Moines, United States, in the Drake Relays competition with 4.85 m. Subsequently, on June 8 at the Hengelo meet for the IAAF World Challenge she achieved 4.90 m making her the third athlete to have equaled or surpassed that mark, with the others being Yelena Isinbayeva and Jennifer Suhr.

For the month of August, she attended her second world championship in the city of Moscow. In that competition, she managed to advance from the preliminary phase in which all competitors who qualified for the final scored 4.55 m, and in the competition for medals she captured the bronze medal with a record of 4.82 m in a competition won by Yelena Isinbayeva who took her third world title.

2014
First World Title
Silva presented herself at the indoor world championship in Sopot, Poland, in March 2014, and was not favored to place on the podium. Moreover, she had had modest preparation before the event. Despite everything, she managed to take the gold medal with a record of 4.70 m in a close competition in which three other competitors also reached the same height, but it was the Cuban who surpassed it on one attempt. In this way, she became the first Cuban athlete to win a world title in the specialty, whether outdoors or indoors.

For the rest of the season she achieved a victory in Rome in the Diamond League, where she competed in five meets. In fact, in Monaco, in July, she decided to take a break due to accumulated fatigue since she had not stopped since December 2013 with her attendance at the XVIII World Festival of Youth and Students in Ecuador. She decided to end the year in Veracruz, for the Central American and Caribbean Games, where she won the gold medal with a new event record of 4.60 m.

2015
The Beijing World Championship
For the 2015 Diamond League, Silva improved her marks progressively. Although she started in Beijing with a mark of 4.58 m, which placed her in third place, in Birmingham she achieved 4.42 m for sixth place, in New York she was fourth with 4.44 m, and in Paris she placed second with 4.73 m. By July she attended the Toronto Pan American Games where she once again had as a rival the Brazilian Fabiana Murer who had won twice in the Diamond League. However, the Cuban maintained the championship achieved in Guadalajara with a jump of 4.85 m which also positioned itself as the best mark of the year up to that point and a new Pan American record.

The good moment continued in the city of Beckum, Germany, where she surpassed her own personal record by jumping 4.91 m on August 2. Thus she presented herself at her third world championship, which was held in Beijing, being considered the favorite to win the competition, which she confirmed by achieving a mark of 4.90 m and thus crowning her athletic career with an absolute title.

2016
The Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games
At the beginning of 2016, Silva intended to participate in the indoor world championship in Portland to defend her 2014 world title, but decided to withdraw to be close to her boyfriend Sergio Mestre, a high jump specialist, who had suffered a serious accident. Upon returning to competition, her best result in the Diamond League was in Birmingham with first place and a mark of 4.84 m.

Affected by the unfortunate event, she presented herself at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games which in fact she considered not attending; and although she managed to reach the final, in the competition for medals she placed in seventh position with a record of 4.60 m.

2017
In 2017, Silva aimed to prepare for the world championship that year in London. Her first important track and field meet took place in May, in the Diamond League in Doha, where she finished third with a mark of 4.65 m; and subsequently took part in the Barrientos Memorial in which she achieved a modest mark of 4.40 m. However, in June she surpassed that mark with a jump of 4.75 m at the Rome meet, valid for second place, but in Oslo she took first place with a jump of 4.81 m, with the caveat that at this meet the Greek Ekaterini Stefanidi was not present, winner of the Rome meet where she had achieved a mark of 4.85 m. Days later, her record dropped to 4.55 m in Stockholm for fifth place, the same mark and position as the London meet on July 8.

For her fourth world athletics championship, Silva was the most prominent athlete of the Cuban delegation. And although she was considered among the competitors who could fight for the gold medal, it was the Greek Stefanidi who stood out among all of them for her impeccable season. In fact, she was the winner of the competition with a jump of 4.91 m, while Silva was able to claim the bronze medal jointly with young Venezuelan Robeilys Peinado, since they achieved the best performance within a group of four pole vaulters who achieved the mark of 4.65 m.

After that event, in the Diamond League final that took place in Brussels, she placed in ninth position with a record of 4.55 m, with the winner being the Greek Stefanidi with a jump of 4.85 m.

2018
In March 2018 Silva attended her third participation in the indoor world championship, which was held in Birmingham, and ended in seventh position with a mark of 4.60 m. Subsequently she competed in four Diamond League meets, with her best result being second place in Monaco with a jump of 4.80 m. She was unable to attend the final of the competition in Zurich due to an injury. She did, however, achieve the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, her second consecutive, with a record of 4.70 m. Meanwhile, at the NACAC Championship in Toronto she finished second with the same result, and at the continental cup she finished fourth with 4.55 m.