But, perhaps most significantly, it’s both her best clearance since breaking the world record a year and a half ago and one centimetre higher than her top jump in 2025. To be in such good nick so early in the season suggests that Mahuchikh could be close to regaining her best — she struggled in the second half of last season, judged by her own lofty standards, that is.
Stunning run
Ahead of last June’s Stockholm Diamond League meet, Mahuchikh had won 14 of 15 competitions, a stunning run that included Olympic and World crowns, and the historic breaking of Stefka Kostadinova’s 37-year-old mark with a jump of 2.10m in July 2024. She then suffered five defeats in eight events, starting in Stockholm and culminating in the loss of her World title at Tokyo last September. She was on the podium in all but one of these losses. For generational talents like her, however, nothing short of victory will do; everything else is seen as failure.
Pursuing a gold-laden 2026, the 24-year-old will be especially keen to set the record straight at March’s World Indoor Championships. She hasn’t been on the top step of the podium at the prestigious event since her triumph at Belgrade in 2022.
Back among her own: Mahuchikh opened 2026 at home, having decided to make Ukraine her training base after years of constant travel. ‘I try not to focus on the shelling,’ she says. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Mahuchikh is planning her indoor season carefully: on the road to the World Indoors, she will compete at the Springer-Meeting in Cottbus (Germany) next week and the Tipos Banskobystricka latka in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia) in late February. She is also scheduled to feature in the Ukrainian Championships, an important part of her return to home base this year.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mahuchikh piled as much as she could into her car and left Dnipro, her hometown of almost one million, located only about 100 kilometres from the front lines of the war. On her way out, she heard gunfire and could, at times, see shells raining down miles away. Since then, she has been forced to train abroad, away from her family. Her success over the last four years is astonishing, seen in isolation. When you consider the emotional turmoil and the lack of stability in her life, her deeds are elevated even further.
But the years of constant travel have extracted a psychological toll, she told Ukrainian media after beginning 2026 at the Demyanyuk Memorial with a win.
“Why did I decide to start in Ukraine? After almost four years of travelling back and forth, I missed home, so this year I am training at home. That’s why I’m opening the season at home. I will compete in the Ukrainian Championships in February,” she said. “We’ve constantly moved from one city to another to prepare for competitions and achieve top results. But it’s mentally exhausting. Here are my people, my friends, my apartment, my cat who’s always nearby.”
Extreme circumstances
Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president and double Olympic champion, offered a sense of just how challenging Mahuchikh’s journey has been. “I was able to prepare in the safety and security of my home city. I was able, when I needed to, to travel abroad,” he said. “I cannot imagine what it must be like for athletes in Ukraine. It’s an intolerable situation.”
The risks Mahuchikh faces, training in Ukraine, are considerable. “I try not to focus on the shelling and instead prepare mentally for training. We monitor threats, including ballistic missile risks. In Dnipro, they’ve done a very good job dividing air raid alerts by city districts, which helps assess the situation,” she said, adding that training is suspended during air raid alerts.
Mahuchikh’s life story only adds to her growing legend, which began during her years as a teenage prodigy. She broke through in stunning fashion at the 2019 Worlds in Doha, where she lost the gold on countback to the great Mariya Lasitskene, an Olympic and three-time World champion. Just 18 then, Mahuchikh began to build an empire to rival Lasitskene’s.
But the Ukrainian’s dominance has been challenged by Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers, who beat Mahuchikh in the three biggest events of 2025: the Worlds, the World Indoors, and the Diamond League Final. Although Mahuchikh leads Olyslagers 27-11 in finals overall, she trailed her rival 4-5 in 2025. It’s a trend she will want to reverse in 2026, as she looks to add to her collections of big titles (1xOlympics, 1xWorlds, 1xWorld Indoors, 3xDiamond League Final).
Warm not heated: Although the competition between Nicola Olyslagers and Mahuchikh is fierce, their relationship is one of camaraderie and mutual respect. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Although the competition between the two is fierce, their relationship is one of camaraderie and mutual respect. “Competing with Nicola, it’s interesting to watch, and it just gets me ready for my next competition,” Mahuchikh told Olympics.com. “We all get on well and help one another along. When someone else is jumping really well, it can give you this energy. If someone jumps well, I get the feeling that I am ready to fight and jump higher and higher. It’s so cool. I like this atmosphere, because I think you should be competitors on the track but stay friendly off it.”
Olyslagers, five years older than her rival, agreed with Mahuchikh’s assessment. “I enjoy jumping with Yaroslava as I know that when she jumps high, I jump high,” she said.
Main-event storyline
The Mahuchikh-Olyslagers storyline is expected to be one of the main events of the athletics season, and their duels have the potential to push both athletes to sustained excellence. But while Mahuchikh is thankful for the competitive stimulus the rivalry supplies, she is powered by more than that. Her love for jumping, her ambition, her imagination and her resilience make her both a serial winner and a compelling watch.
“I am ready to fly like a swallow,” she once said. “Your body takes off for several seconds, you fly … it is really fantastic those seconds. I want to improve myself and jump higher than 2.10, I think it’s possible. I feel that I can do it… there are definitely no limits.”
