Yaime Pérez Tellez (sometimes "Yaimí", born 29 May 1991) is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

specialising in the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

. In 2022, she defected to the United States.

Career

She was the gold medallist at the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

, then won her first senior title at the regional

2011 ALBA Games The IV ALBA Games (Spanish: ''Juegos del ALBA Bicentenario'') is a multi-sport event held between 17–30 July 2011 in ten different states of Venezuela. The games are organized by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). Participating ...

. Pérez represented Cuba at the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013; ) was an international athletics (sport), athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10 to 18 August 2013. Initially, Russia at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, Russia ...

, placing eleventh in the final. Her 2014 season was highlighted by a silver medal at the

Central American and Caribbean Games The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for 32 countries and ...

and a fifth-place finish at the

2014 IAAF Continental Cup The 2014 IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field sporting event that was held in Marrakech, Morocco, on 13–14 September 2014. It was the second edition of the IAAF Continental Cup since the name and format was changed from th ...

. Pérez won her first

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

meeting in 2015, beating world and Olympic champion

Sandra Perković Sandra or SANDRA may refer to: People * Sandra (given name) * Sandra (singer) (born 1962), German pop singer * Margaretha Sandra (1629–1674), Dutch soldier * Sandra (orangutan), who won the legal right to be defined as a "non-human person" Pla ...

through a personal best throw of .Rowbottom, Mike (9 July 2015)
Taylor topples Pichardo in Lausanne – IAAF Diamond League
IAAF. Retrieved on 10 July 2015. Pérez won the gold medal at the 2019 World Championships and the bronze medal at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. She defected to the United States while on a stopover in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, after performing at the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the ...

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

where she placed seventh in the competition. Following her defection, Pérez began training under coach Dane Miller.

Personal bests

*Shot put: (2008) *Discus throw: (2024)

International competitions

¹Representing the Americas ²No mark in the final

References

External links

* * * 1991 births Living people Athletes from Santiago de Cuba Cuban female discus throwers Olympic athletes for Cuba Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba Pan American Games silver medalists for Cuba World Athletics Championships athletes for Cuba World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Cuba Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games Defecting sportspeople from Cuba Diamond League winners IAAF Continental Cup winners Pan American Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists for Cuba 21st-century Cuban sportswomen Pan American Games silver medalists in athletics (track and field) {{Cuba-athletics-bio-stub