Yaima Ortiz is one of the most popular and richest Volleyball Player who was born on November 9, 1981 in Havana, Cuba. Ortiz was part the Cuban team that won bronze in the 2003 Pan-American Cup. Her team lost 2-3 to Dominican Republic in their gold medal match, and she was then called to the 2003 Pan American Games. Ortiz was a participant in the 2003 FIVB World cup where her team won the silver medal at the 2003 NORCECA Continental Championship.
Ortiz helped the Cuban team over the Dominican Republic in the 2005 NORCECA Championship semifinals before they settled for the silver medal when falling to the United States 2-3, failing the championship and the ticket to the FIVB Grand Champions Cup. She played for Uralochka-NTMK for 2005/06.
Ortiz helped Cuba to win the 2005 Pan-American Cup championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She was chosen to play the 2005 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and she ranked fourth in the final standings.
At 21 years old, she was one of the Cerro Pelado Training Center’s national team rookies. Later, she played in the 2002 Cuban National League as Occidentales. They became league champions with Ortiz’s assistance and lost only one match. She joined the Cuban League team with the help of Luis Felipe Calderon, Jorge Garbey and Eugenio George. This was followed by a warmup tour to four countries before the Pan American Cup. She won the 2002 Pan-American Cup Gold Medal after beating the Dominican Republic by 3-1. She was soon on her way to the 2002 FIVB Grand Prix, where her national team was ranked seventh. She was part of the Cuban team that qualified for the 2002 FIVB world championship, where she mostly served as a substitute player. Her team lost 0-3 against the United States in quarterfinals. They had to settle for the fifth to eighth place round. They defeated Bulgaria 3-2 and won 3-2 against Korea to reach fifth place in the tournament.
Ortiz did altitude training with the National Team of Riobamba, Ecuador, in March 2001 to prepare for the tournaments. She finished fourth in the 2001 FIVB World grand prix and won the silver medal in the 2001 NORCECA Championship, Santo Domingo.
Ortiz was among the core of the national team that was getting ready for the 2004 Summer Olympics. She led all the spikers during the 2004 Pan-American Cup held in Mexico, with a 56.00 percent success, winning the gold medal and the Best Spiker award. She was a member of the Cuban team which won the bronze medal in the Olympic tournament. She played under the guidance of the veteran coach Nikolay Karpol with the Russian club Dinamo Moscow Oblast for the 2004/05 season with fellow Cuban Marta Sánchez, where she said she felt like home and became very interested in the country.
