Yarisley Silva
Silva celebrated her silver medal at the London Olympics
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Yarisley Silva Rodríguez |
| Born |
1 June 1987 San Luis, Pinar del Río |
| Height | 1.61 m (5 ft 3 in) |
| Weight | 63 kg (139 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |
 Cuba
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| Sport | Athletics |
| Event(s) | Pole vault |
| Coached by | Alexander Navas |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | 4.91 m |
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Medal record
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| Updated on 7 January 2015. | |
Yarisley Silva Rodríguez (born 1 June 1987) is a Cuban pole vaulter. She won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics – the first Latin American athlete to win an Olympic medal in that event.
Silva became the first Cuban woman to reach a world class standard in the pole vault. Her personal bests of 4.90 m (16 ft 0 3⁄4 in) outdoors and 4.78 m (15 ft 8 in) indoors are the Cuban and Central American and Caribbean records for the event.
She emerged at the regional level with a silver medal at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games, and a bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games. She then won gold medals at the 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics and the 2011 Pan American Games.
Silva represented Cuba at the 2008 Summer Olympics and came fifth at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.
Born in Pinar del Río in Cuba, Silva began to participate in pole vault competitions from the age of twelve. Many women in her family took part in athletics and her mother was a javelin thrower. In spite of its strong traditions in track and field, pole vaulting was a discipline in which Cuba had not historically been successful. As a result, Silva quickly established herself nationally at the age of sixteen, coming second at the Cuban Athletics Championships and winning the Barrientos Memorial in 2003. In 2004 she cleared four metres for the first time, which was a Central American and Caribbean junior record. She improved this to 4.10 m at the 2005 Barrientos meet, winning the competition again.
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