Yipsi Moreno González (born November 19, 1980, in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 333,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by Sp ...

) 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 ...

hammer throw The hammer throw (HT for short) is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track-and-field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The hammer used in this sport is not like any of the tools a ...

er. She is a triple

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and

Olympic gold medalist This article lists the individuals who have won at least four gold medals at the Olympic Games or at least three gold medals in individual events. List of most Olympic gold medals over career This is a partial list of multiple Olympic gold medali ...

, a former world junior record holder and current area record holder. In 2016, after the 2008 Olympic gold medallist Belarus athlete Aksana Miankova received a disqualification by IAAF, Moreno ostensibly became Olympic hammer throw champion for Cuba in the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

in Beijing.

Early life and education

At the age of 11, she was recruited by the Cerro Pelado Sports School in her hometown, where she started practicing

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

and

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 ...

. Hammer throw was not a regular women's event at the time, but following its introduction in Cuba in 1993, she eventually concentrated on this event and she earned a place on the national junior team in 1996.

Athletics career

1997–2000

In 1997, Moreno won the Pan American Junior Championships in Havana with a throw of 55.74 metres, improving the two-year-old championship record with ten metres. She beat the second-place finisher

Maureen Griffin Maureen is a female name, the female form of the male name Maurice. In Gaelic, it is Máirín, a pet form of ''Máire'' (the Irish cognate of Mary), which is derived from the Hebrew Miriam. Some notable bearers of the name are: People * Maureen ...

by a 46 centimetre margin. This year she threw past the 60 metre mark for the first time, with 61.96 m. The next year, she finished fourth at the

1998 World Junior Championships 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water Ice is water tha ...

, this time 29 centimetres behind Griffin. After the World Junior Championships, Moreno started working with a new coach Eladio Hernández, himself a former hammer thrower. The cooperation paid off almost immediately as Moreno established a new world junior record on 29 May 1999 with 66.34 metres at altitude in Mexico City. Later that year, she won the silver medal at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

with 63.03 metres, only beaten by

Dawn Ellerbe Dawn L. Ellerbe (born April 3, 1974) is a former track and field athlete who specialized in the hammer throw. She is currently the assistant athletic director at California State University, Northridge and a popular fashion model and blogger. El ...

who threw 65.36.Pan American Games
- GBR Athletics At the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

the same year her only valid throw measured 58.68 metres, giving her an eighteenth place in the final (there was no qualification round). At her next major competition, the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

, she improved to fourth place.

2001–2002

In 2001, she broke the 70 metre barrier for the first time, and improved her personal best to 70.65 metres as she won the

in Edmonton. Three weeks later she won the silver medal at the

2001 Summer Universiade The 2001 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXI Summer Universiade, was an international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, between 22 August and 1 September. Beijing also hosted the 1990 Asian Games. A total of 6,757 athle ...

behind

Manuela Montebrun Manuela Montebrun (born 13 November 1979) is a retired, female hammer thrower from France. She is an Olympic bronze medallist and two-time World Championship bronze medallist. Career Born in Laval, Mayenne, Montebrun won two back-to-back World ...

of France, who had finished fifth in Edmonton. In 2002, she improved to 71.47 metres in Madrid in July. She was selected to represent the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

at the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

held in the same city two months later, and finished second.

2003–2005

In July 2003, she improved further to 75.14 metres. At the

she won the gold ahead of compatriot

Yunaika Crawford Yunaika Crawford Rogert (; born November 2, 1982) is a Cuban hammer thrower who won the Olympic bronze medal in 2004 with a personal best throw of 73.16 metres. Early career Crawford made an early debut on the international stage. At the age o ...

, smashing Dawn Ellerbe's championship record with a 74.25 metres throw. At the

in August she defended her title with a second round effort of 73.33 metres. Her third round result of 72.52 m further secured the gold as runner-up

Olga Kuzenkova Olga Sergeyevna Kuzenkova (; born 4 October 1970 in Smolensk) is a Russian track and field athlete, the first woman to throw the hammer more than 70 meters. She has tested positive for doping. She won gold in the women's hammer throw event at ...

managed no more than 71.71 m. Commenting on her victory, Moreno stated that she "was happy for Cuba and my family". The inaugural

World Athletics Final The IAAF World Athletics Final was an annual track and field competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was inaugurated in 2003 to replace the IAAF Grand Prix Final. The competition was part of the ...

in Szombathely, where she obtained another triumph, concluded the season. At the end of the year she was named ''Cuban Sportswoman of the Year'' for 2003. 2004 was an Olympic year and Moreno was considered the pre-event favourite for the hammer throw contest. Not only was she in lead of the world ranking, her new personal best and South American record of 75.18 metres from the National Cuban Olympics in Havana in April was the world leading result. In the Olympic final, however, her chance of winning soon dwindled as Olga Kuzenkova took the lead and Moreno fouled her first throw. Moreno went on to foul on three of her five remaining efforts, managing 73.36 metres in the fourth round, while Kuzenkova had improved to 75.02 metres in the third round. Yunaika Crawford took the bronze medal behind Moreno. The

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

was the only major competition for Moreno in 2004. She did not compete at the

and experienced a foot injury which sidelined her for the first half of 2005. This meant she was dethroned from the leading position at the world ranking, but she recovered the position after a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships and a victory at the

2005 World Athletics Final The 3rd IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Stade Louis II, in Monte Carlo, Monaco on September 9, and September 10, 2005. The hammer throw event for men and women had to take place in Szombathely, Hungary on September 3 as the Monaco stad ...

. For the first time in her career, however, she went a whole season without improving her personal best.

2006–2007

In early 2006, Moreno won her first

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 ...

title, setting another championship record with 70.22 metres. In August she again lost her top ranking position, this time to Russia's

Tatyana Lysenko Tatyana Viktorovna Lysenko (, born 9 October 1983 in Bataysk) is a Russian hammer thrower. Her career has been blighted by repeated doping infractions. In February 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed her an eight-year ban for dopin ...

who had established a new world record of 77.80 m. Moreno's season best mark was 74.69 m from the Ostrava Super Grand Prix in May. She finished third at the

2006 World Athletics Final The 4th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart, Germany on September 9 and September 10, 2006. Results Men Women References External linksOfficial 4th IAAF World Athletics Final Site
{{DEFAU ...

and the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

, both times behind

Kamila Skolimowska Kamila Skolimowska (4 November 1982 – 18 February 2009) was a Polish hammer thrower. She is best known for her gold medal in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, which made her the youngest Olympic hammer champion, as well as for her two medals ...

of Poland. On 3 March 2007, she broke her own area record as she threw 75.64 metres in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

. Establishing the new record in the fifth round of the competition, she followed this up with a 75.43 metres throw in the final round, again longer than her previous personal best. "I have had a good start this year, without physical problems", Moreno explained. On 17 June she improved the record again, with a 76.36 m throw from the second round in the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

2008

At the 2008 Olympics Women's Hammer Throw final, Moreno again won a silver medal, this time behind

Aksana Miankova Aksana Miankova, also transliterated as Oksana Menkova, (, born 28 March 1982) is a Belarusian hammer thrower. Her personal best of 78.69 m ranks her as the third best woman of all-time. Career Miankova began learning the hammer throw in he ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, who threw an Olympic Record distance of 76.34 meters in her second-to-last round. Moreno was in the silver medal position with one throw left, and in her final effort, she fell short of Miankova with a throw of 75.20 meters, although it was her best throw of the final. She was declared 2008 Olympic Champion in 2016, after Belarusian Aksana Miankova was disqualified for using prohibited substances.

Personal bests

*Hammer throw: 76.62 m –

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, 9 September 2008

Achievements

Footnotes

References

*
IAAF Focus on Athletes

2008 Olympics Woman's Hammer Throw Results

External links