Ruth Beitia

Beitia first broke the Spanish record in 1998, jumping 1.89 m. She raised the record progressively up to 2.02 m, the current Spanish record, which she achieved on 4 August 2007. She is the first, and thus far, only Spanish woman to have jumped higher than two metres.

Beitia's first senior international appearance was at the 2002 European Athletics Championships in Munich, where she finished 11th. At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, she also finished 11th. At the 2004 Athens Olympics she failed to reach the finals. In 2005, she won the silver medal at the 2005 European Indoor Championships in Madrid but at the world championships at Helsinki 2005 she failed to reach the finals. In 2006, she won the bronze medal at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Moscow.

In 2009, she won the silver medal at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Turin. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, she placed fifth. In 2012, she won the gold medal at the European Championships in Helsinki and at the 2012 London Olympics she was fourth, after which she retired from competition.

After a few months, disappointed by her failure to win an olympic medal, Beitia came back from retirement. She won the gold medal at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg. Then she would become European champion twice more, in 2014 at Zürich and in 2016 at Amsterdam. Finally, she won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, with a height of 1.97m. This was the lowest winning height at the Olympics since the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, when Italian Sara Simeoni also cleared 1.97m.

In 2008, Beitia was named chair of the Regional Executive Committee of the local branch of the People's Party, serving in that capacity until 2012.

In 2011, she was ninth on the closed list of the PP for the election to the Parliament of Cantabria; the PP won 20 seats and she was duly elected. During her first term, she was named First Parliamentary Secretary, presiding over committee meetings and other gatherings of leading parliamentary officials.

In the 2015 election, the PP lost its absolute majority and did not form the next government; however, she advanced her place on the list to sixth and was re-elected.