Yuliana Pérez

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Yuliana Pérez
Personal information
Full nameYuliana Pérez Martinéz
Nationality United States
Born (1981-07-21) 21 July 1981 (age 42)
Tucson, Arizona, United
States
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight70 kg (154 lb)
Sport
SportAthletics
EventTriple jump
College teamPima Community College
Arizona Wildcats
ClubTucson Elite Athletic Club
Coached byDick Booth
Achievements and titles
Personal bestTriple jump: 14.23 (2003)
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing the  United States
Pan American Games
Silver medal – second place 2003 Santo Domingo Triple jump

Yuliana Pérez Martinéz (born July 21, 1981) is an American triple jumper of Cuban heritage.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and finished twenty-eighth at the 2004 Summer Olympics
. During her track and field career, Perez has acquired a personal best of 14.23 m (46 ft 8 in) and 13.80 m (45 ft 3+1⁄4 in) each in the outdoors and indoors, respectively.

Early life

Born in

San Diego, California.[2] Following her mother's untimely demise, Perez and her two younger brothers bounced around homes for a couple of years, before being sent back to Havana, Cuba, to live with their paternal grandmother.[2][3]

While residing in Cuba throughout her childhood and teenage years, Perez developed herself into one of the country's most promising young athletes, taking three high school championship titles and a silver medal in the triple jump from the 1997 Junior Pan American Games. In late 1999, Perez dropped from the Cuban sports program after she refused to forego her American citizenship in exchange for the possible trip to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as part of the Cuban squad.[4]

Upon her arrival to the United States in early 2000 with just a backpack full of clothes and a reservation at a foster home, Perez left herself meager, jobless, and inarticulate in English, until she was befriended by social worker Cruz Olivarria, who invited to live with her in downtown

Tucson.[4][5] Working initially as a waitress, Perez restarted her athletic career through a series of radiant gestures from strangers that quickly helped her enroll on a sports scholarship at Pima Community College.[4]

Career

While studying at Pima and competing for the Aztecs, Perez blossomed her freshman season by recording the team's longest triple jump at 14.01 m (45 ft 11+1⁄2 in), eight inches farther than her personal best in

Beijing, China, where she nearly missed out the podium with a fourth-place finish in the same event.[7]

At the 2002 U.S. Championships in Palo Alto, California, Perez slammed her first ever title with a wind-aided jump of 14.20 m (46 ft 7 in), surpassing the 14-meter barrier and edging out runner-up Vanitta Kinard by a few inches.[8] As the 2003 season had commenced, Perez exhausted her eligibility at Pima upon receiving her undergraduate college degree, and then transferred to the University of Arizona to train full-time with head coach Fred Harvey for the Arizona Wildcats.[2]

In June 2003, Perez managed to defend her title at the

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with a jump of 13.99 metres.[10]

Perez entered the

Olympic Trials in Sacramento, California, but retained a permanent spot on the U.S. team by having achieved the Olympic A-standard of 14.23 m (46 ft 8 in) from the 2003 U.S. Outdoor Championships.[11] Perez got off to a rough start with a foul on her opening attempt but managed to jump 13.62 m as a top qualifying mark on her second attempt. Since her third jump was slightly shorter than her best result by eleven centimeters, Perez ended up in twenty-eighth place out of thirty-three athletes and did not advance past the qualifying round.[12][13][14]

Outside of her college track and field career, Perez also trained for Tucson Elite Athletic Club under legendary coach Dick Booth.[15]

References

  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Yuliana Pérez". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Vanderson, Jessie (9 May 2003). "Pima champion makes leap to UA". Tucson Citizen. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  3. ^ Gutierréz, Valerie (30 April 2004). "First in Flight". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Spousta, Tom (11 July 2001). "Track & Field: Twists, Turns and Triple Jumps". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  5. ^ Simpson, Corky (30 April 2004). "Telling a story you couldn't make up". Tucson Citizen. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  6. Baltimore Sun
    . Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Perez is favored to win triple jump Saturday". ESPN. 14 February 2003. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  8. IAAF
    . 23 June 2002. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  9. IAAF
    . 23 June 2003. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  10. ^ "Team USA picks up 7 more medals at Pan Am Games". USA Track & Field. 8 August 2003. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  11. ^ a b Vanderson, Jessie (11 August 2004). "Perez can jump with joy in Athens". Tucson Citizen. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  12. IAAF
    . Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  13. ^ Prater, Mike (21 August 2004). "Perez fails to advance in triple jump". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  14. ^ "Williams wins Olympic silver in women's 100m". USA Track & Field. 21 August 2004. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  15. ^ Vanderson, Jessie (20 July 2004). "Perez hoping for Athens nod". Tucson Citizen. Retrieved 24 February 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuliana_Pérez&oldid=1193927647"