Nafissatou Thiam

Nafissatou Thiam, born on August 19, 1994, in Brussels, Belgium, developed an early passion for multi-sport track and field events. She began practicing heptathlon at the age of seven and secured her first national age group title by 15. Her early career saw her achieve notable performances, including a fourth-place finish at the 2011 World Youth Championships and a 14th-place finish at the 2012 World Junior Championships. In 2013, she won gold in the heptathlon at the European Junior Championships in Rieti, Italy, setting a Belgian record of 6298 points. Her progression continued with a bronze medal at the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zürich and silver medals at both the 2015 European Indoor Championships (pentathlon) and the European U23 Championships (high jump).

Thiam achieved international prominence at the Rio 2016 Olympics, where she became the youngest heptathlon gold medalist ever at just 21 years old, with a score of 6810 points. She continued her dominance by winning the pentathlon at the 2017 European Indoor Championships and securing her first world title at the World Athletics Championships in London the same year. In May 2017, she scored 7013 points at the Hypo-Meeting, placing her among a select group of female athletes to break the 7000-point barrier in heptathlon, and also set a Belgian record for the javelin throw with 59.32m. She added the 2018 European Athletics Championships gold to her accolades, becoming only the third woman to win Olympic, World, and European heptathlon titles. Despite an elbow injury, Thiam earned a silver medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championship.

Demonstrating continued excellence, Thiam won the pentathlon for a second time at the European Indoor Championships in 2021. She successfully defended her Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021, becoming the first Belgian athlete to achieve this. Her winning streak extended to the 2022 European Championships and the 2022 World Athletics Championships, where she claimed her second world gold medal. In 2023, Thiam set a world indoor pentathlon record with 5055 points at the European Indoor Championships, marking her as the first Belgian woman to set an official athletics world record. In 2024, she secured her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the heptathlon at the Paris Games, further cementing her legacy as a leading figure in multi-event athletics.