About Yarisley Silva
Yarisley Silva Rodríguez (born 1 June 1987) is a Cuban pole vaulter. She won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics – the first Latin American athlete to win an Olympic medal in that event. Silva became the first Cuban woman to reach a world class standard in the pole vault. Her personal bests of 4.90 m (16 ft 3⁄4 in) outdoors and 4.78 m (15 ft 8 in) indoors are the Cuban and Central American and Caribbean records for the event. She emerged at the regional level with a silver medal at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games, and a bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games. She then won gold medals at the 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics and the 2011 Pan American Games. Silva represented Cuba at the 2008 Summer Olympics and came fifth at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. == Career == === Early career === Born in Pinar del Río in Cuba, Silva began to participate in pole vault competitions from the age of twelve. Many women in her family took part in athletics and her mother was a javelin thrower. In spite of its strong traditions in track and field, pole vaulting was a discipline in which Cuba had not historically been successful.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.