Yamilé ALDAMA

In her native Cuba, Yamilé Aldama started as a long- and high jumper before turning her attention to triple jumping in the mid-1990s. She qualified for the 1996 Olympics but was unfit and could not take part. She finished sixth in the World Indoor Championships the following year, and in 1999 won the gold medal at the Pan-American Games, and a silver at the World Championships. She represented Cuba at the 2000 Olympics and then moved to England and ran for Shaftesbury Harriers, and applied for British citizenship. She had married a British subject and started a family but her husband served seven and a half years in prison for drug trafficking and whilst she had to raise her family on her own, she sought to gain eligibility to compete on the Great Britain team. However, she was not eligible for a British passport until 2005 so she looked at other options to enable her to compete at the 2004 Olympics and, despite a few offers, in January 2004 she chose to compete for Sudan. She represented Sudan again at the 2008 Games but eventually obtained UK citizenship in February 2011 and, a few months later, at the age of 39, became the oldest person to make her Great Britain début, when she competed in the World Championships, where she finished fifth. She won the gold medal at the 2012 World Indoor Championships and then represented Great Britain at the London Olympics. She announced plans to represent Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and thus became the first athlete to represent four countries. However, she did achieve this, when she took part, but represented England.