Nafissatou Thiam
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born |
19 August 1994 Brussels,[1] Belgium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country |
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| Club | RFCL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Roger Lespagnard | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) |
Heptathlon: 7013 points (3rd all time) Pentathlon: 4870 points (10th all time) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam (born 19 August 1994) is a Belgian athlete specializing in multi-event competition. She was born in Brussels to a Belgian mother and a Senegalese father. As of May 2018, Thiam holds the Belgian record in women's heptathlon and women's Javelin. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2017 World Championships and the 2018 European Championships. She was voted IAAF World Athlete of the Year in 2017.
Career
Nafi Thiam started participating in athletics when she was seven years old, winning her first national age group titles in 2009, by which time she was already specializing in the heptathlon. Her favorite athlete at the time was Swedish heptathlete Carolina Klüft.[2] Thiam is a member of RFCL Athlétisme, an athletics club operating under the aegis of the Technical and Sports Department of the Royal Football Club de Liège, and is coached by Belgian former decathlete Roger Lespagnard.[3] She studies geography at the University of Liège.[4]
At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Lille, France, Thiam finished fourth in the heptathlon with a total of 5366 points. Then, as a first-year junior, she finished 14th at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics in the heptathlon with a total of 5384 points.
On 3 February 2013, Thiam broke the junior indoor world record in the pentathlon at a meeting in Ghent with a total of 4558 points, breaking her personal best in 4 of the 5 events.[5] Carolina Klüft, who later became Olympic champion and triple world champion, had held the record since 2002 with 4535 points. In doing so Thiam became the first Belgian female athlete to break a world record.[6] However, in March 2013, the record was not ratified due to a lack of anti-doping control on the day it was achieved. The testing took place the next day, which was beyond the deadline specified by the IAAF, athletics' international governing body.[7]
On 18 July 2013 Thiam won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the European Junior Athletics Championships, achieving a new Belgian record of 6298 points.
On 13 August 2016, Thiam won the gold medal in heptathlon at the Olympic Games in Rio with 6810 points, achieving personal best marks in five of the seven disciplines and defeating reigning Olympic and World Champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[8] She was elected Belgian flag bearer at the Olympic closing ceremony.[9]
On 3 March 2017, Thiam won the pentathlon at the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade with a total of 4870 points.
On 28 May 2017, Thiam won the heptathlon at the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria with a total of 7013 points, again achieving personal best scores in five of the seven disciplines, making her the fourth woman to score 7000 points or higher in competition. As of July 2017, Thiam is third on the all-time list behind Jackie Joyner-Kersee of USA and Carolina Klüft. Her 59.32m Javelin throw in the Hypo-Meeting heptathlon in Götzis broke the Belgian record for the women's individual event.
On 6 August 2017, Thiam won the heptathlon at the 2017 World Championships in London, becoming the first Belgian to win a World Athletics Championships gold medal.
On 10 August 2018 she won the gold medal at the 2018 European Championships, becoming only the third woman to win Olympic Games, World and European Championships in heptathlon, after Carolina Klüft and Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Championships
Olympic Games
- 2016, heptathlon: outdoor, gold medal (6810 points)
World Championships
- 2017, heptathlon: outdoor, gold medal (6784 points)
European Championships
- 2018, heptathlon: outdoor, gold medal (6816 points)
- 2017, pentathlon: indoor, gold medal (4870 points)
- 2015, pentathlon: indoor, silver medal (4696 points)
- 2014, heptathlon: outdoor, bronze medal (6423 points)
Belgian National Championships
- 2018, long jump: outdoor, gold medal (6m 60 cm)
- 2016, pentathlon: indoor, gold medal (4678 points)
- 2016, long jump: indoor, gold medal (6m 51 cm)
- 2015, high jump: indoor, gold medal (1m 85 cm)
- 2015, long jump: outdoor, gold medal (6m 40 cm)
Personal bests
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- a Heptathlon record
References
- ↑ "Page 12 Nafissatou Thiam" (PDF). Ligue Belge Francophone d'Athlétisme. 15 August 2016.
- ↑ "Thiam Nafissatou" (PDF) (in French). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ↑ "Thiam Nafissatou" (PDF). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ↑ "Nafissatou Thiam cumule les récompenses !". Université de Liège. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
- ↑ Vande Weyer, Philippe (3 February 2013). "Nafissatou Thiam bat le record du monde junior du pentathlon indoor". Le Soir. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ↑ Jacobs, Hans (5 February 2013). "Is de nieuwe Tia Hellebaut opgestaan?". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ↑ "Le record du monde junior de Nafissatou Thiam, établi à Gand, ne sera pas homologué". Le Soir (in French). 20 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ↑ "Nafi Thiam kroont zich tot olympisch kampioene op de zevenkamp" (in Dutch). Sporza. 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
- ↑ "The Flagbearers for the Rio 2016 Closing Ceremony". 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
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