The Road to the World Indoor Championships
Lamara Distin qualified for the 2026 World Indoor Championships on the 24th of February when she cleared 1.96m at the high jump meeting in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.
After the summer season of 2025, Yannick Tregaro and Lamara Distin started their journey together. Though she was located in Texas, USA and Team3garo is based in Gothenburg, SWE. Lamara had to do all of the training alone, with only a program sent to her each day, before she was able to come to Sweden. Coaching an athlete remotely is never easy, especially in the beginning when you have not yet gotten to know each other, it's definitely not optimal. Even though all this, Yannick is positive of the work they have done so far and the details they are working on:
“It’s been a very positive start. We began working together remotely in October, and it was a big change for her in terms of training, especially with more bounding and some adjustments in strength work.
Technically, we’ve focused on improving her footwork in the approach to create better rhythm and higher speed, and on developing a clearer increase of rhythm through the curve. In the take-off, key elements have been the angle of the lean and the rotation off the ground - especially getting the left shoulder back towards the bar to allow a better position over it. A crucial detail is learning to actively push the head down once it has passed the bar, which helps bring the hips up and over more effectively.
We started training together in person in January, and I could immediately see improvements - she looked lighter and stronger on her feet. She’s handled the technical input very well, and we’re building things step by step."
Yannick is a highly accomplished coach who has coached 18 medals at major championships. "It’s a bit crazy", he reacts to this being his 10th World Indoor Championships as a coach. This time he's going with a fairly new athlete of his:
"One of my strongest memories is when Christian Olsson equaled the world indoor record (17.83m) in 2004, and more recently when Thobias Montler won silver in 2022 with a lifetime best (8.38m) in the final round.
I’ve known Lamara for a couple of years, and we’re getting to know each other better every day. She’s calm, very determined, and truly believes she can achieve anything - and so do I.
It’s a strong field, but the focus is to compete smart, clear the heights you need, and stay in the competition as long as possible - hopefully all the way to the end."
An olympian, a National record holder, a two times Worlds Finalist - but has never participated at the World Indoor Championships. “She’s in very good shape coming into the championships” according to Yannick, and they both are very exited to be going there.
“I'm very excited to be going to my first indoor World Championship! My goals are pretty simple, to have fun, enjoy the atmosphere, and do what I know I am capable of doing. There's no limit to how high I can jump! I want to do the things I know I'm capable of doing. I'm grateful to have made it, especially after a couple of years of not performing at my best. Starting to train with Yannick just a few months ago, and seeing the improvement has been a tremendous feeling. So I’m really pumped going into this championship.”
After living in Texas, USA for her college years, and also being from Jamica, moving to Sweden is obviously a big change. New coach, new environment, new cold, snowy climate (to make things even more extreme she came to Sweden in the midst of winter).
"But, Lamara says, change can be a good thing. I'm really happy with this change and getting used to the hang of things here. It's all been really positive. So now I’m not too fazed about the cold weather. I've really enjoyed training with Yannick and Team3garo. It's a very friendly and supportive environment, which is perfect for pushing myself to be at my best especially having a coach like him behind you 100%.”
W High Jump Final - Friday 20th Mars 2026 - 11.39 CET
Height Progression: 1.85m, 1.89m, 1.93m, 1.96m, 1.99m +2cm
More information on the championship: