Ruth Beitia Vila (; born 1 April 1979) is a retired

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er 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 metres. Beitia's first senior international appearance was at the

2002 European Athletics Championships The 18th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 August to 11 August 2002 in the Olympic Stadium of Munich, Germany. Men's results Track 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , 2010 , 1 Dwain Chambers originally won the 100 m in 9.96 and was pa ...

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, where she finished 11th. At the 2003 World Championships in

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, she also finished 11th. At the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

she failed to reach the finals. In 2005, she won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

at the 2005 European Indoor Championships in

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but at the world championships at Helsinki 2005 she failed to reach the finals. In 2006, she won the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in

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. In 2009, she won the silver medal at the

2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held in Turin, Italy, from Friday, 6 March to Sunday, 8 March 2009. The championships took place at the Oval Lingotto indoor arena

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. At the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

in Berlin, she placed fifth (fourth after competitor disqualification). In 2012, she won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

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and at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

she was fourth, after which she retired from competition. After a few months, disappointed by her failure to win an Olympic medal, Beitia came back from retirement. She won the gold medal at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships in

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. Then she would become European champion twice more, in 2014 at Zürich and in 2016 at 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

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Sara Simeoni Sara Simeoni (born 19 April 1953) is an Italian former high jumper, who won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics and twice set a world record in the women's high jump. Biography Sara Simeoni was born in Rivoli Veronese, in the province of V ...

also cleared 1.97m. Beitia ended in 12th place in the

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and received the IAAF Fair Play Award for her behaviour during the competition. She announced her retirement from competition in October 2017, following a

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involv ...

process. In 2021, two years after the original bronze medalist Svetlana Shkolina of the 2012 Olympics from Russia had been disqualified for failing in doping test, Beitia was reallocated as the bronze medalist of that event.

Olympic results

Achievements

Personal Bests

Political career

In 2008, Beitia was named chair of the Regional Executive Committee of the local branch of the People's Party (PP), serving in that capacity until 2012. In 2011, she was ninth on the

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...

of the PP for the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the Parliament of Cantabria; the PP won 20 seats and she was duly elected. During her first term, she was named First Parliamentary Secretary, presiding over committee meetings and other gatherings of leading parliamentary officials. In the 2015 election, the PP lost its absolute majority and did not form the next government; however, she advanced her place on the list to sixth and was re-elected. In September 2018, Beitia was appointed a member of the national PP's executive board by leader

Pablo Casado Pablo Casado Blanco (; born 1 February 1981) is a Spanish former politician. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid until 4 April 2022, having previously represented Ávila between 2011 and 2019. From 2015 to 2018, he ...

, serving as Secretary of Sport. In January 2019, the PP announced her advance on the list for the 2019 election to first place, thus becoming the party's candidate for

President of Cantabria The President of Cantabria, according to the Autonomy Statute of Cantabria, presides over the Government of Cantabria, directs its activities, coordinates the Administration of the autonomous community, designates and separates the regional min ...

. Nevertheless, a few days after Beitia stepped down and informed Casado of her decision to "leave politics due to strictly personal and family reasons".

References

External links

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Ruth Beitia Atletismo Pielagos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beitia, Ruth 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Santander, Spain Athletes from Cantabria Spanish female high jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Spain Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Spain World Athletics Championships medalists Olympic gold medalists for Spain Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Spain Athletes (track and field) at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Olympic female high jumpers European Athlete of the Year winners Members of the Parliament of Cantabria Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Diamond League winners People's Party (Spain) politicians