Olympic gold for Ukraine: How Mahuchikh rewrote history of high jump in 6 years

In the Olympic high jump final, Mahuchikh cleared 2.00 meters with the fewest attempts, securing her first Olympic gold medal. She is only the third Ukrainian track and field athlete to stand atop the Olympic podium, following in the footsteps of Inessa Kravets (triple jump) and Nataliya Dobrynska (heptathlon).

Mahuchikh first made her mark as a rising star in the summer of 2018. At the European Athletics U18 Championships in Győr, Hungary, she won the women’s competition with a jump of 1.86 meters, later breaking the European record for her age category on her third attempt with a new benchmark of 1.94 meters—just 2 cm shy of the men's record at the time (1.96 meters).

Her upward trajectory continued. At the 2019 Diamond League, she set a new personal best of 1.96 meters, becoming the youngest winner in the competition’s history. Later that year, at the Diamond League in Eugene, USA, she reached 2.00 meters, becoming the youngest athlete in track and field history to achieve this height.

At the 2019 World Championships, Mahuchikh broke the junior world record with a jump of 2.04 meters. However, this wasn’t enough to surpass Russian athlete Mariya Lasitskene, leaving Mahuchikh with the silver medal.

The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily halted Mahuchikh’s momentum. Her first major competition after the break was the Diamond League in Monaco, where she triumphed over her compatriot Yuliia Levchenko. As she prepared for her Olympic debut, postponed by a year, Mahuchikh won the 2021 Diamond League stage in Stockholm with the season’s best result (2.03 meters) and claimed the U23 European Championship with a tournament record of 2.00 meters.

However, nerves got the better of her at the Tokyo Olympics. Mahuchikh, along with Lasitskene and Australia’s Nicola McDermott (Olyslagers), cleared 2.00 meters, but it was Lasitskene and McDermott who battled for gold, leaving the Ukrainian with the bronze.

The 2022 season marked the beginning of Mahuchikh’s journey to Olympic gold in Paris. She started with a victory at the World Indoor Championships (2.02 meters), followed by a second-place finish at the outdoor World Championships with the same result. In August, she won the European Multisport Championships (1.95 meters) and later claimed the Diamond League stage in Brussels with the season’s best of 2.05 meters.

Finally, the year leading up to the Olympics was filled with notable victories for Mahuchikh. She dominated the European Indoor Championships, European Games, World Championships, and the Diamond League final, reaching a personal best of 2.03 meters.

In 2024, Mahuchikh took a break during the World Indoor Championships, allowing Olyslagers to taste victory. But at the European Championships in Rome, she demonstrated her determination to win the Olympics by securing gold with a height of 2.01 meters. At the Diamond League in Paris, Mahuchikh left Olyslagers behind once again, before setting her sights on the unthinkable.

The young Ukrainian decided it was time to break Stefka Kostadinova’s long-standing world record. The Bulgarian had jumped 2.09 meters in 1987, holding the record for nearly four decades. Mahuchikh set the bar at 2.10 meters and cleared it on her first attempt!

Of course, expecting a repeat of such an extraordinary result at the Olympics would be unrealistic. Yet, the new record-holder sent a clear message to all her competitors—no one would keep up with her in Paris. In the end, it was true: for Olympic gold, it was enough to clear 2.00 meters—the same height that had only earned her bronze in Tokyo.

Mahuchikh’s Olympic gold is a well-deserved pinnacle of her career. At just 22, the Ukrainian track and field star has many more victories ahead. Finding new challenges for athletes of her caliber has never been an issue. Why not, for instance, become the first athlete since 1964 to win back-to-back Olympic titles in 2028? After all, there hasn’t been a double Olympic champion in her discipline since 1984.