Yulimar Rojas: "You have to live life fully and without taboos"

Yulimar Rojas is the goddess of the stadium.

There is no better female athlete in the world, perhaps.

There is no woman in the world, nor in history, who has gone further than Yulimar Rojas (Caracas, 26 years old) with three jumps, Olympic champion, six-time world champion, unbeatable, and

, 15.74 meters.

The others, a distant shadow;

and life, music.

More information

Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas wins world gold in triple jump and becomes the first athlete to win it three times

In outdoor training, his cajon at full volume thunders the Guadalajara stadium;

when he goes to the gym, salsa, reggaeton, guaracha, cumbia come out of his helmet nonstop.

Óscar d'León and her Latin Dimension, Justin Quiles, Chimbala, and she grabs dumbbells, weights and handles them like maracas, and her squats are dance steps.

Whoever visits her on her Instagram expects her and finds Yulimar dancing, singing every day, and in the stadiums people stand up when she jumps and dances with her when she breaks a record, when she celebrates a victory, when she breathes.

Ask.

What is music?

Response.

I have always been a super happy woman, super happy with life, with what I do, with what I am passionate about.

Music is a passion and accompanies me at all times, whether it's to be at home, to relax, to feel calm, to calm down, to concentrate, to train, to... to do anything in my day to day.

It makes me feel alive just the fact of feeling that sensation of rhythm, of movement, that which gets into my body and my being and gives me joy.

Q.

As necessary for you as oxygen to live, it seems…

A.

Sure.

I have been raised with music.

My mother, my father, my family, are very happy people, and since I was little there has always been rhythm, music, flavor at home.

I also like to sing... and I'm not very good at it, ha ha ha, I'm not very good at it, but I don't care.

It is part of me, part of my daily experience.

And sometimes you think about the family or the people you miss and have far away, because they are all still in Venezuela.

So then I get sentimental and start listening or singing boleros.

And also vallenatos because it is the genre that identifies my family.

P.

When you arrived in Spain, almost a girl, seven years ago, you were, however, a shy athlete, it even seemed that you were afraid to make noise... And now you enjoy being the goddess of the stadium.

R.

It was a stage of my life in which I hid from people, I was ashamed that they saw me dance or do something that really identified me.

I didn't do it out of fear of people or what they'll say or if I'm going to do it right or if they're going to make fun of me and all that stuff.

That created me as a kind of trauma at first…

Q.

And he got over it…

R.

I did it with music, with the passion in what I do, in what made me feel good, with sports, with the combination of both.

That inspired me, it helped to strengthen me, it gave me more confidence.

It gave me more belief in who I am and what makes me feel and, above all, it has made me who I am.

I have always tried to reflect my essence, my life and how natural I am.

I don't like pretending to be something I'm not and I always try to be myself and not lose that light that accompanies me and that shine.

The whole subject of music has been a great bastion for me.

Yulimar Rojas dancing in the bodybuilding room. Claudio Alvarez

Q.

And now it is impossible to separate your image from that of a happy person dancing…

R.

We must never stop being who we are to make others happy.

We always have to think about ourselves, what makes us happy and what fulfills us, what identifies us as people.

And, above all, we must always value others as they are.

We are all in this life to fulfill our dreams.

To be happy.

To live life fully and without taboos.

Without thinking of people who want to point fingers at others.

That should not make us fear.

It should not enclose us in a bubble.

We have to be free to show what we have inside, what we carry in our hearts.

P.

And he even became a kind of prophet of self-affirmation...

R.

I think like that and I like to reflect it in others, I like that they see me as I am and that beyond the athlete, the titles, the medals, the brands, that they see my essence.

A cheerful woman, full of life, powerful and, above all, humble.

Q:

Does your partner also live the passion of music?

A.

Sure, sure.

Especially when we are at home, when we are seeing things on social networks.

And she tells me, oh, love, she watches such music.

She doesn't really like vallenato, it's more about intense perreo, reggaeton and stuff.

So I'm always singing vallenato and she says, oh, all the time, all the time, vallenato, but she has managed to cope with it and she already knows someone.

Q.

Do you share this liberating vision of music, this passion?

R.

It is something that unites us, that identifies us as a couple.

She learned to cope with music that she doesn't like but I do like.

And I hers, because there is music that I really can't stand, but I have to put up with.

But it has been a good combination, because it is something that unites us both as people and improves the relationship.

That for us is happiness, it connects us as people, as a couple.

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