100 of the Most Influential Women in Sport >> Athletes

Nafissatou Thiam, Belgium

Heptathlon and Javelin

Denise Lewis, Carolina Kluft, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Nataliya Dobrynska and Nafissatou Thiam. For nearly two decades there has been an unbroken string of heptathlon superstars and Thiam officially joined the pantheon after winning gold at the 2018 European Championships. That success completed the set alongside World Championship and Olympic Games triumphs, a path that only Kluft and Ennis-Hill had trodden before. Next year there is new ground to traverse as the 24-year-old looks to become the second heptathlete to defend her Olympic title after Jackie Joyner-Kersee in Tokyo. Born to a Senegalese father and Belgian mother, Brussels-born Thiam did not have the look of a would-be deposer ahead of Rio 2016. The plot was centred around Jessica Ennis-Hill and her comeback from pregnancy – perhaps deservedly so given she had won the Worlds in 2015, the year of her return to action. Thiam, a geography student at the time who had just the European bronze to her name as a senior, excelled at both the long jump and javelin to reel in her British rival on day two. A competent 800m time was enough to secure another passing of the torch. The defence of her World title in Doha is next on the agenda as she manages a calf injury that has caused her to miss the 2019 indoor season.

– Thiam’s personal best heptathlon score of 7013, set in Gotzis in 2017, places her third on the all-time list of top scorers behind Joyner-Kersee and Kluft.

– Her World Championships gold medal in 2017 was a first for a Belgian athlete.

– She was named the IAAF Female World Athlete of the Year at the end of that season and was a nominee the following year.

Did you know…

Thiam entered the Olympic games with two ripped ligaments in her throwing elbow – and still clinched a personal best in the javelin on the way to overall victory.

“After Rio, everyone told me my life was going to change. “I was a bit scared, because I didn’t want my life to change. I’m a shy person, I don’t really like to be in the spotlight. People look at me in the street, and sometimes I don’t really feel comfortable.” – Nafissatou Thiam

Twitter: @thiam_nafi

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