Nafissatou Thiam

Nafissatou Thiam
Personal information
Born (1994-08-19) 19 August 1994
Brussels,[1] Belgium
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 72 kg (159 lb)
Sport
Country  Belgium
Club RFCL
Coached by Roger Lespagnard
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) Pentathlon: 4558 points; junior indoor world record[2]
Medal record
Olympic Games
2016 Rio de Janeiro Heptathlon
European Championships
2014 Zürich Heptathlon
European Indoor Championships
2015 Prague Pentathlon
European U23 Championships
2015 Tallinn High Jump
European Junior Championships
2013 Rieti Heptathlon

Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam (born 19 August 1994) is a Belgian athlete who became Olympic champion on the heptathlon at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also broke the indoor junior world record on the women's pentathlon on 3 February 2013, but this record could not be ratified because the compulsory anti-doping control could not be organized in time.

Thiam, daughter of a Belgian mother and a Senegalese father, is a member of RFCL, an athletics club from Liège, and is coached by Roger Lespagnard.[3] She studies geography at the University of Liège.[4]

Career

Nafissatou Thiam started with athletics when she was seven years old. She won her first national age group titles in 2009, when she was already participating in the heptathlon. Her favorite athlete when she was 15 was Carolina Klüft.[5]

At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Lille, France, she finished fourth in the heptathlon with a total of 5366 points. As a first-year junior, she finished 14th at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics in the heptathlon.

On 3 February 2013, Thiam broke the junior indoor world record on the pentathlon at a meeting in Ghent. Carolina Klüft, who later became Olympic champion and triple world champion, had held the record since 2002 with 4535 points. Thiam totalled 4558 points, breaking her personal best on 4 of the 5 events.[2] She is the first Belgian woman athlete ever to break a world record.[6] However, in March 2013, the record was eventually not approved, because of a lack of anti-doping control on the day she achieved it; it took place the next day, which was beyond the deadline.[7]

On 18 July 2013 Thiam won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the European Junior Athletics Championships, achieving a new Belgian record score of 6298 points.

On 13 August 2016, Thiam won the Heptathlon Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Rio.[8] She was the Belgian flag bearer for the Olympic closing ceremony.[9]

Championships

National titles:[10]

European Athletics Championship:

Olympic games

Personal bests

Performances table during the junior indoor world record in 2013
Event Performance Points Thiam vs Klüft
60 metres hurdles8.65 s 989 8.49 s
High jump 1.86 m 1067 1.81 m
Shot Put14.00 m 786 12.71 m
Long jump 6.30 m 902 6.24 m
800 m2:22.82 749 2:14:95
Total JIWR 4558 +23 points
Personal bests

References

  1. ↑ "Page 12 Nafissatou Thiam" (PDF). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. 15 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 Vande Weyer, Philippe (3 February 2013). "Nafissatou Thiam bat le record du monde junior du pentathlon indoor". Le Soir. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  3. ↑ "Thiam Nafissatou" (PDF). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  4. ↑ "Nafissatou Thiam cumule les récompenses !". Université de Liège. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Thiam Nafissatou" (PDF) (in French). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  6. ↑ Jacobs, Hans (5 February 2013). "Is de nieuwe Tia Hellebaut opgestaan?". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. ↑ "Nafi Thiam kroont zich tot olympisch kampioene op de zevenkamp" (in Dutch). Sporza. 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "The Flagbearers for the Rio 2016 Closing Ceremony". 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  10. ↑ "Nafissatou Thiam" (PDF) (in French). Ligue belge francophone d'athlétisme. 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  11. ↑ "European Athletics Championships Heptathlon Results". 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
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