Ahead of her Wanda Diamond League opener in Xiamen on April, Ukrainian high jump star Yaroslava Mahuchikh speaks to diamondleague.com about war, world records and winning the Diamond Trophy.
You kick off your Wanda Diamond League campaign in Xiamen on April 26. How are preparations going for the season ahead?
It’s going well! I’ve been jumping well since the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing. I know that there will be great competitors in the field in Xiamen with the Australian girls and the Serbian girls. It will be an incredible atmosphere and I want to get a good result. I’m looking forward to starting my season.
Last time you were in Xiamen, in 2023, you jumped 2.02m. What memories do you have of that performance?
It was my first visit to China and it was really fantastic, both outside the stadium and during the competition. A lot of people came to support athletes: it was full stadium and when we’d finished, there were a lot of people who wanted to talk a little bit or take a picture. It was really fun, and I think the Diamond League fans in China are some of the best supporters I have ever seen.
At the World Indoors in Nanjing, you won bronze behind Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson, both of whom will also be in Xiamen next weekend. Is this a chance for revenge?
(laughs) No, I think that chance will come at the next World Indoor Championships in 2026! Of course not winning gold in Nanjing has motivated me to work harder, but in the high jump it’s always a great atmosphere on the track. We are like friends, we talk to each other all the time. We compete with each other all the time in the Diamond League, so we are very close to each other. When someone jumps high or gets a personal best, the others are always so happy for them.
Does it help that you compete against each other so regularly? You’re always having to measure yourself against your biggest rivals.
It makes it more interesting. When someone else is jumping really well, it can give you this energy. If someone jumps well, I get the feeling that I am ready to fight and jump higher and higher. It’s so cool. I like this atmosphere, because I think you should be competitors on the track but stay friendly off it.
How important is it for you to have that level of competition in the Diamond League as you prepare for the World Championships in Tokyo this season?
The World Championships are obviously the most important competition for me this year. But for me, the Diamond League is like a World Championships. Mentally, it’s on the same level. And it’s a chance for us to jump, jump and jump and get in shape. I’m looking forward to the start of the season and also to the Final in Zurich. That will be just before the World Championships so I will be in good shape.
The World Championships come after the Diamond League Final this year, rather than in the middle of the season. Is that a new challenge?
Let’s see. It was the same in 2019 when the World Championships were in Doha at the beginning of October. Generally, I like to finish my season earlier so I can get home sooner, but this way is also ok. I remember in 2018, I jumped a personal best and won gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in October. So I have experience with late championships.
You are also starting your season earlier this year: does that change the way you approach the season in terms of training and psychology?
Training is a bit different this year, we are doing more exercises for stability. After the Olympics and the Diamond League Final last year, I had a two-month vacation where I didn’t jump at all. I just relaxed and focused on my social projects in Ukraine. When I came back to training in December, it was so hard and I couldn’t even jump 1.85m! It was really crazy, but I think it sometimes happens like that. So now I just want to train and work towards getting better results than last year.
Last year, you won Olympic gold and broke the world record. Is it possible for you to get even better?
I still think I can improve my run-up. With my previous run-up, I had been doing it for five years and I always knew what to do. Last year, we changed to 11 strides, and I still have moments where I don’t quite know how fast I should be going. Even though I jumped 2.10m and got an Olympic gold medal with the new run-up, I still don’t think it’s perfect.
Does that mean we might see another world record from you this year, once you’ve mastered the new run-up?
(laughs) I hope so! Even now I have the gold medal and the record, I still want to jump higher. I want to jump 2.11m and 2.12m. And I have another great jumper in the pole vault who really motivates me…
…Mondo Duplantis?
For him, it’s like: “World record? Ok, let’s go!”. I want to have that same feeling – it’s a big motivation. I remember when we were doing a press event with Puma last year before Paris and I was sitting with Mondo and Karsten Warholm. They were both introduced as “world record holders” and I was introduced as “Olympic bronze medallist”. It was like I didn’t fit!
But now you are also part of the world record club. Take us back to that moment at the Diamond League in Paris last season, when you jumped 2.10m.
Before the competition, I had a feeling I might do something special. But when I came to the track, I made several mistakes at 1.85m and I was so tired. Then I jumped my personal best of 2.07m at the second attempt, and my coach was so excited. She thought I should stop there, because 2.07m was a PB, I had just recovered from injury, and we had the Olympic Games coming up. But I felt something, and I said to my coach: I am going to have just one attempt at the world record. Just one…
What were your feelings on the runway ahead of that jump?
Before the attempt, I was in this state where I thought: I cannot do this. But then I asked the crowd to clap, and the atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic. The main thing in my mind before my first step was that it would be a really big celebration in Ukraine if I did it. There was a lot of tough news, and I was thinking: If I can break the world record, I will sign the name of Ukraine into the history of athletics. A lot of people had said that no woman could ever jump higher than 2.09m, but now I have opened that door.
That previous record of 2.09m had been unbeaten for almost 40 years. Did it sink in immediately?
When I jumped it, I didn’t immediately recognise what it meant. I didn’t grasp it until October, when my coach and I were back in Ukraine, and the National Olympic Committee nominated me as athlete of the year and showed the video of my world record and my Olympic gold medal. That was the moment I understood what a fantastic year it had been.
You have spoken before about what it means to you to represent your country. This is now the fourth year in a row that you will be competing across the world while there is war at home. How do you deal with that psychologically?
After the first year in 2022, I thought it might get easier the more experience I had. But now I understand that it only gets harder. Every year, it is harder to be abroad and to only be at home in Ukraine for two months. It’s harder to leave and know that you will only come back at the end of the season in October, because you can’t train in your hometown. I really hope that by the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, I will be able to train in Dnipro again. This hope is what helps me to be in shape and continue my work.
You already have three Diamond League titles. If you win a fourth this season, you will equal Mariya Lasitskene’s record and become the joint most-successful female high jumper in the series’ history. What would that mean to you?
I want a big wall for my collection of Diamond Trophies, because they are so beautiful and it’s such a fantastic feeling when you receive this trophy and stand on the podium with the champions from all the other disciplines. You’re on stage with the whole athletics family, with the best of the best. I want to repeat those feelings over and over again.
It’s always a long journey to get to the final. This year, you are already signed up for Xiamen, Shanghai/Keqiao and Stockholm. What rituals do you have when you are on the road during the season? Is there anything you always take with you?
My passion is stationery, so I always have my pens and lots of stickers with me. Of course I also have my training diary, which I write and sometimes draw in every day. And I always have books. I prefer paper books, which is sometimes hard to fit in my luggage because there is so much stuff. I like biographies. At the moment I’m reading a book about the history of the Gucci family.
And finally: do you have a favourite Diamond League meeting?
That’s a really difficult question! Of course, the Diamond League meeting in Paris is a special one for me now because it’s where I broke the world record. The other one is probably Brussels, because that was where I first competed in the Diamond League Final. That was a special moment for me.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh kicks off her Wanda Diamond League campaign at the season opener in Xiamen on April 26.
