Nafissatou Thiam

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Nafissatou Thiam is a Belgian heptathlete. She is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion, the 2018 World Indoor champion in the pentathlon, and the 2017 and 2022 World Champion in the heptathlon.

Thiam was born in Brussels to a Senegalese father and a Belgian mother of Congolese descent. She began her athletics career at the age of eight, competing in mini-hurdles and long jump. At the age of fifteen, she was persuaded by her older sister to try the heptathlon, and she quickly showed promise, winning the Belgian national title in 2012. Thiam made her senior international debut at the 2014 European Athletics Championships, finishing ninth. She won her first major medal, a bronze, at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. The following year, Thiam became the first Belgian to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics, with victory in the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She successfully defended her world title in London in 2017.

Thiam is ranked as the second best heptathlete of all time, behind only American Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She is a part of the Royal Football Club of Liège’s athletics club, RFCL Athlétisme, which is run by the club’s Technical and Sports Department. Roger Lespagnard, a former decathlete from Belgium, was her coach for 14 years before she ended their relationship in October 2022. Thiam represents UNICEF Belgium as a Goodwill Ambassador.