Yarisley Silva Rodriguez wins IAAF World Championship Pole Vault: The Sky is the Limit

Kudos to newly crowned IAAF world champion Yarisley Silva Rodriguez, who won the women's pole vault at the IAAF World Championships, held this weekend in Sopot, Poland. Her vault of 4.70 m. tied with Russia 's Anzhelika Sidorova and Jirina Svobodova of  the Czech Republic, but Silva took the crown by virtue of fewest misses.

In light of her championship, I am updating an article from last spring, in the hopes of further enlightening some folks about this immense talent from Cuba. I am scheduled to talk with Miss Silva next month for the summer issue (#6) of Trackside magazine, due sometime around June. Issue #5 should be hitting the public by the end of March. More to come.


Last spring, I had the pleasure of conducting a series of interviews with world class sprinter Justin Gatlin. Fortunately, Justin is an active participant in the TrackNation movement; in fact, he’s probably the most recognizable face of the organization. 

While talking with Gatlin, on a whim and while we were discussing the topic of being a track fans, I mentioned that I had seen a Cuban pole vaulter on TV the previous Saturday. Her name was Yarisley Silva, and I felt she may become the “next big thing” in track.

Since Justin watches many other events besides the ones he runs (the 100, 200 or 400 relay), he had a lot to offer with regard to Silva and the women’s pole vault. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening there. When I was coming up, Stacy Dragila (2000 Olympic gold medalist and world record holder on numerous occasions) was the big name. Now, the women are just pushing the bar up.”

At last year’s Drake Relays, which coincided with our interviews, Silva, a silver medalist at the 2012 London Games, took it to American vaulting ace Jenn Suhr. In the process, she cleared 15’10.75” (4.85 m.) a remarkable height which just edged Dragila’s best (keep in mind that Dragila was like Wayne Gretzky, just WAY ahead of her competition), and also set the Cuban, Caribbean and Central American records. She has since bumped her best mark up to 4.90 m.

After clearing the winning height in Iowa, Silva called it a day, and opted to not make attempts at a higher standard.

In my continuing quest to become an “ace” reporter, I figured that she could be a potential interview, and got to work on this endeavor at 10 PM on a Saturday night. With nowhere else to turn, I did a cursory search on Facebook. And there she was, with a fan page.

I sent a message to the page. Ten minutes later, I received a friend request from her friend Lilian Cid. Just noticing that the request was from Cuba was enough to tell me that I had made a connection. As it turned out, we ended up chatting for 30-45 minutes.

About ten minutes into our chat, a message notice popped up. It was Yarisley. She had typed a short note mentioning that I should talk with her friend, who helped her out with “media stuff” and that when she knows what I’m looking for, we could be in contact. Actually, it was more of a “how can we help you?” type of note. Lilian, in particular, was gracious and ready to answer all of my questions. Problem was, I didn’t have any yet!

Here’s the tale of the tape. Yarisley Silva is just 26. She has been vaulting for eight years, but couldn’t find many quality track meets until she could meet the qualifying standards for high level meets outside of Cuba, where her main competition is the bar itself. Case in point, she has improved from 4.40 to 4.90 in the past five years, and is just entering her peak ages. 

The sky remains the limit for Miss Silva. Keep an eye out for her as this outdoor season progresses and the 2016 Olympics in Rio take place. She's got it going on.