Puma was almost the sponsor of every medal in the World Championships in High Jump on both the men’s and women’s side of the sport. Yaroslava Mahuchikh took on a deep field of athletes which included American Vashti Cunningham who bowed out of the competition earlier than expected. One of the few Nike sponsored athletes in the event, it could be time for Vashti to move on from her NFL father as her coach. She looks disinterested and distracted in the sport and with her success on social media in modeling and fashion, turning pro straight out of high school could have been the wrong decision for an athlete who probably didn’t need to do so financially.
Yaroslava had a few uncharacteristic early misses, but it all came together for her and she battled two highflyers from Australia, Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers. Nicola and Yaroslava gave Puma another gold and bronze as adidas sponsored Patterson snuck in and finished with the silver. It’s important to note that Yaroslava is unable to train in her home country and has to move around to train due to the ongoing war between Russia and the Ukraine. This makes her continued success extremely impressive.
The complete event can be viewed on NBC’s Peacock and it runs over 2 hours. High Jump is one of the few sports in track and field which could be created as an independent league event as the space needed isn’t very big and the length of the event can be monetized with ads and sponsors. Here is the winning jump from Yaroslava.
