Yargeris Savigne officially received the Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medal

December 29, 2023

Cuban Yargeris Savigne officially received the bronze medal from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Despite finishing fifth in the triple jump final, she climbed onto the podium after it was confirmed that two athletes competed while doped.

During the awards ceremony for the island's best athletes of the year, Savigne received the medal that accredits her as an Olympic bronze medalist, as established by the International Olympic Committee regulations for these cases.

In 2008, Yargeris Savigne competed at the Bird's Nest stadium, which hosted the Olympic Games in the Chinese capital, and she was part of one of the most impressive finals of all time. Exclusively for Play-Off Magazine, the also world champion recalled what happened.

"In Beijing I was very nervous. In addition to it being my first Olympic Games, when I looked to the side, I had as rivals the Cameroonian Etone, who without shoes jumped 14.80 m, Devetzi, the Greek, who that year was very consistent, Lebedeva, a legend, and accomplished athletes like the Kazakh, Olga Rypakova, and the Ukrainian, Olga Saladuha," she recalled.

"In qualification I registered 14.99 m and came out as the favorite in the final, but that was another story. The jumps didn't come out and the nervousness began."

"On top of that, everyone started jumping extremely hard: Etone with 15.39 m, Lebedeva with 15.32 m, Devetzi with 15.23 and Rypakova with 15.11. Imagine, me with 15.05 m finished fifth. That's something you tell and people don't believe it. I called it the fair of the 15s.

"Nine years later, Lebedeva and Devetzi were suspended for doping and I became an Olympic bronze medalist. I would have preferred to enjoy the achievement in full competition, not to find out almost ten years later, in 2017. In the end, I accepted it and I'm very happy about it, but I felt pain when I finished fifth in Beijing. It wasn't fair."

In 2009, she won her world title again in triple jump in Berlin. Accompanied by Mabel Gay on the awards podium, Yargeris Savigne became, at that moment, the second athlete capable of achieving such a feat and the absolute owner of the event.

"In Berlin, the level dropped a bit. The Cameroonian Etone didn't compete, and the Russian Lebedeva and the Kazakh Rypakova didn't have a good season. When I finished jumping, I ran to Mabel to congratulate her. She had both Cuban flags and I took one to lap the track together with her."