Records are meant to be broken, even if some records seem like they aren’t.
Until Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s world record-breaking jump last summer at the Paris Diamond League Meeting, the previous women’s high jump world record persisted for 37 years. And even then, the mark only increased by one centimeter.
To put in perspective how long the record lasted, Mahuchikh wouldn’t even be born for another 14 years when Stefka Kostadinova jumped 2.09m in Rome.
There’s a good chance that we won’t have to wait until 2061 to see the record fall again. Mahuchikh is still only 23 years old, and along with her world record, she’s also already compiled an Olympic gold and bronze as well as a gold and two silver medals at the world championships.
In an interview with European Athletics in October, she noted that she feels she has room for improvement, expressing that she feels that 2.15m jumps are possible. Tacking on another five centimeters to the former world record is a monumental task, but it isn’t impossible. We’ve seen it before, an athlete so far ahead of the field that they smash their own world record seemingly every other week (here’s looking at you, Mondo).
Mahuchikh currently has 3 jumps over the 2.05m mark for her career, a mark that only 15 women have achieved. If we start seeing her consistently over this height, there’s a good chance that she’ll that she’ll at least challenge her previous world record once she’s in the peaking phase of her training later in the summer. For reference, the previous world record holder, Stefka Kostadinova, managed to break this mark 21 times in her career from 1985 to 1992.
Mahuchikh is off to a good start in her 2025 campaign. With her win at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting on May 3rd, she extends her Diamond League winning streak to 10 and is currently tied with Nicola Olyslagers for the top jump in the World so far at 2.01m.
If history is any precedent, Mahuchikh’s window of dominance could easily last for at least another Olympic cycle. Of the top 7 female jumpers of all time, three of them set their personal best at the age of 27 or older.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that somebody else will rise up and challenge for the world record attempt. Angelina Topić jumped 1.98m last summer, a few months shy of her 19th birthday. In 2022, she was the youngest medalist in the history of the European Championships at 17.
Other up-and-comers who could see big jumps forward this year include Aurora Vicini and Yelizaveta Valuyeva, who both cleared 1.92m last summer as teenagers.
