Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specializing in multi-event competition.
24 Facts About Nafissatou Thiam
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Nafissatou Thiam is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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Nafissatou Thiam won the gold medals at the 2017 and 2022 World Championships, and 2018 and 2022 European Championships as well as the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.
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Nafissatou Thiam was voted IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year in 2017.
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Nafissatou Thiam was a Belgian flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Games.
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In May 2017, at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, Austria, Nafissatou Thiam became only the fourth woman to break the heptathlon 7000-point barrier.
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In doing so, Nafissatou Thiam became the first ever Belgian woman to set an official athletics world record.
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Nafissatou Thiam holds the world record for the high jump discipline within the heptathlon competition, set in 2019.
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Nafissatou Thiam was born in Brussels to a Belgian mother and Senegalese father.
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Nafissatou Thiam started participating in athletics when she was seven years old, winning her first national age group titles in 2009, by which time she was already specializing in the heptathlon.
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At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Lille, France, Nafissatou Thiam finished fourth in the heptathlon with a total of 5366 points.
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On 3 February 2013, Nafissatou Thiam broke the junior world indoor record in the pentathlon at a meeting in Ghent with a total of 4558 points, breaking her personal best in four of the five events.
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In doing so Nafissatou Thiam became the first Belgian female athlete to break a world record.
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In 2014, Nafissatou Thiam won the bronze medal for the heptathlon at the European Athletics Championships staged in Zurich, Switzerland.
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On 13 August 2016, Nafissatou Thiam won the gold medal for the heptathlon at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with a score of 6810 points, achieving personal best marks in five of the seven disciplines and defeating reigning Olympic and world champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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Nafissatou Thiam was elected Belgian flag bearer at the Olympic closing ceremony.
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On 3 March 2017, Nafissatou Thiam won the pentathlon at the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade with a total of 4870 points.
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On 6 August 2017, Nafissatou Thiam went into the World Championships in Athletics in London as hot favorite and won the heptathlon world title, becoming the first Belgian to win a World Athletics Championship gold medal.
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Nafissatou Thiam's performance was still good enough for the silver medal.
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At the 2022 World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, Nafissatou Thiam claimed her second world gold medal on 18 July with a total of 6947 points.
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Nafissatou Thiam is a member of RFCL Athletisme, an athletics club operating under the aegis of the Technical and Sports Department of the Royal Football Club de Liege.
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Nafissatou Thiam was coached by Belgian former decathlete Roger Lespagnard for 14 years but she put an end to their collaboration in October 2022.
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Besides being a professional athlete, Nafissatou Thiam studied geography at the University of Liege.
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Nafissatou Thiam graduated from university with a bachelor degree in September 2019.