Born: 1979
Ruth Beitia Vila (Spanish pronunciation: [rut ejtja]; born 1 April 1979) is a retired high jumper who was the 2016 Olympic champion in the women’s high jump. She was also a politician in the Partido Popular and a member of the Parliament of Cantabria.
Biography:
Beitia first broke the Spanish record in 1998, jumping 1.89 m. She raised the record progressively up to 2.02 m, the current Spanish record, which she achieved on 4 August 2007. She is the first, and thus far, only Spanish woman to have jumped higher than two meters.
Beitia’s first senior international appearance was at the 2002 European Athletics Championships in Munich, where she finished 11th. At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, she also finished 11th. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she failed to reach the finals. In 2005, she won the silver medal at the 2005 European Indoor Championships in Madrid, but at the World Championships in Helsinki 2005, she failed to reach the finals. In 2006, she won the bronze medal at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Moscow.
In 2009, Beitia won the silver medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Turin. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, she placed fifth (fourth after a competitor disqualification). In 2012, she won the gold medal at the European Championships in Helsinki, and at the 2012 London Olympics, she finished fourth, after which she retired from competition.
After a few months, disappointed by her failure to win an Olympic medal, Beitia came out of retirement. She won the gold medal at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg. Then she would become European champion twice more, in 2014 in Zurich and in 2016 in Amsterdam. Finally, she won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, with a height of 1.97m. This was the lowest winning height at the Olympics since the 1980 Summer Olympic Games when Italian Sara Simeoni also cleared 1.97m.
Beitia ended in 12th place in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and received the IAAF Fair Play Award for her behavior during the competition. She announced her retirement from competition in October 2017, following a rheumatoid arthritis process.
In 2021, two years after the original bronze medalist Svetlana Shkolina of the 2012 Olympics from Russia had been disqualified for failing a doping test, Beitia was reallocated as the bronze medalist of that event.
Awards:
– Olympic Champion in the women’s high jump at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games
– Gold medalist at the European Championships in Helsinki 2012
– Gold medalist at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg 2013
– European champion in Zurich 2014
– European champion in Amsterdam 2016
– IAAF Fair Play Award recipient at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics