Nafissatou Thiam facts for kids
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Thiam at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene
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| Born | 19 August 1994 Brussels, Belgium |
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| Height | 1.87 m | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 69 kg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country | Belgium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Heptathlon, Pentathlon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | RFCL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Michael Van der Plaetsen (2022–) Roger Lespagnard (2008–2022) |
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| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 1st (2023) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) |
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Medal record
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Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam, born on August 19, 1994, is a Belgian athlete. She is amazing at multi-event sports like the heptathlon.
She is the first athlete ever to win three gold medals in multi-event competitions at the Olympic Games. She won the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo, and 2024 Paris Olympics. Her three Olympic gold medals in a row for a woman match the record set by Anita Wlodarczyk and Faith Kipyegon. Nafi is also the only Belgian athlete to win an Olympic title more than once.
She also won gold medals at the 2017 and 2022 World Championships. She earned gold at the 2018, 2022, and 2024 European Championships. In 2019, she won a silver medal at the World Championships. Nafi was named the World Female Athlete of the Year in 2017. She was also the Belgian flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In May 2017, Nafi became only the fourth woman to score over 7000 points in the heptathlon. In March 2023, she set a new world record in the pentathlon with 5055 points. This happened at the European Indoor Championships. She became the first Belgian woman to set an official athletics world record.
As of March 2023, Nafi holds the Belgian records in the heptathlon and pentathlon. She also holds records in javelin and long jump (both outdoors and indoors). She holds the world record for the high jump part of the heptathlon, which she set in 2019.
Contents
Nafi's Athletics Journey
Starting Young: Junior Career
Nafissatou Thiam was born in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother is Belgian and her father is Senegalese. She started doing athletics when she was seven years old. By 2009, she was already winning national titles for her age group. She focused on the heptathlon early on. Her favorite athlete back then was Swedish heptathlete Carolina Klüft.
In 2011, Nafi finished fourth in the heptathlon at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics in France. The next year, as a first-year junior, she placed 14th at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics.
On February 3, 2013, Nafi broke the junior world indoor record in the pentathlon. She scored 4558 points at a competition in Ghent. This beat the record held by Carolina Klüft since 2002. Nafi became the first Belgian female athlete to break a world record. However, this record was not officially approved because the anti-doping test was done a day too late.
Later in 2013, on July 18, she won the gold medal in the heptathlon. This was at the European Junior Championships in Italy. She set a new Belgian record of 6298 points.
Becoming a Champion: Senior Career
In 2014, Nafi won a bronze medal in the heptathlon. This was at the European Athletics Championships in Switzerland.
In 2015, she earned a silver medal in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Prague. She also won silver in the high jump at the European Under-23 Championships in Estonia.
On August 13, 2016, Nafi won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She scored 6810 points. She achieved her best scores in five of the seven events. She beat the reigning Olympic and world champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill. At 21 years old, she was the youngest Olympic heptathlon gold medalist ever. She was chosen to carry the Belgian flag at the Olympic closing ceremony.
On March 3, 2017, Nafi won the pentathlon at the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade. She scored 4870 points.
On May 28, 2017, she won the heptathlon at the Hypo-Meeting in Austria. She scored 7013 points, setting personal bests in five events again. This made her only the fourth woman to score 7000 points or more. Her javelin throw of 59.32m in this competition broke the Belgian record for the women's individual event.
On August 6, 2017, Nafi was a top favorite for the World Championships in London. She won the heptathlon world title, becoming the first Belgian to win a World Athletics Championship gold medal.
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On August 10, 2018, she won the gold medal at the European Athletics Championships. She became only the third woman to win Olympic, World, and European Championships in the heptathlon.
On June 27, 2019, Nafi won the heptathlon at the Décastar meeting in France. She set a women's heptathlon high jump world record of 2.02 meters.
On October 2, 2019, she competed at the World Athletics Championships. She was a favorite for gold. However, an elbow injury affected her javelin throw. She still performed well enough to win the silver medal.
On March 5, 2021, she won the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Poland. She scored 4904 points.
On August 5, 2021, at the 2020 Tokyo Games, she successfully defended her Olympic title. She scored 6791 points.
At the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Nafi won her second world gold medal on July 18. She scored a total of 6947 points.
On March 3, 2023, at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, she broke the pentathlon world record. She scored 5055 points. With this third European indoor title, Nafi became the most successful female pentathlete in the history of these championships.
At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Nafi and her rival Katarina Johnson-Thompson were both healthy. Nafi managed to keep her Olympic heptathlon title in a close competition. She finished 40 points ahead of her rival. By doing this, she became the first athlete to win three Olympic gold medals in heptathlon in a row.
Life Outside the Track
Nafi is a member of RFCL Athlétisme, an athletics club. She was coached by Roger Lespagnard for 14 years. They stopped working together in October 2022.
Besides being a professional athlete, Nafi studied geography at the University of Liège. She said, "I like climatology, I like geomorphology – how the earth is shaped by rivers. A lot of subjects, like a heptathlon. Maybe that's why I love it." She earned her bachelor's degree in September 2019.
Nafi is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Belgium. This means she helps promote UNICEF's work for children.
Nafi's Awards and Honors
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Nafi Thiam has received many awards for her amazing achievements:
- Golden Spike award: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024
- Belgian Promising Talent of the Year: 2013
- Belgian Sportswoman of the Year: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2024
- European Athletics women's Rising Star of the Year: 2016
- IAAF Female Rising Star of the Year: 2016
- Belgian Sports Merit Award: 2016
- Forbes 30 under 30 for Europe: 2017
- IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year: 2017
In 2017, Nafi officially became a UNICEF Ambassador.
See also
In Spanish: Nafissatou Thiam para niños
