It has been a fabulous summer for Ruth Beitia and now she is undergoing a new challenge - of an academic career alongside her athletics life.
Beitia, 35, retained her title at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August on an emotional and brilliant evening at the Letzigrund Stadium as she won with 2.01m which equalled the world lead.
And now, as she heads towards the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague and the IAAF World Championships in Beijing next year, she is doing so as one of 12 athletes who are part of a sports and education project.
It is jointly promoted by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and the San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) and it means the athletes chosen can carry on their sporting careers while also working towards academic degrees.
Beitia is one of the three track and field athletes chosen, with the others being Antonio Manuel Reina, the 2005 European indoor 800m silver medallist, and national discus champion Frank Casaí±as.
They were inducted into the project at a ceremony at the headquarters of the COE in Madrid.
Beitia did actually retire from athletics at the end of the 2012 season where her European victory in Helsinki was followed by fourth place at the Olympic Games in London.
But within a few months she was back and in the summer of 2013 won bronze at the World Championships in Moscow.
2nd October 2014 10:30