Nafissatou Thiam

thumb|Nafissatou Thiam in 2022 Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam (born 19 August 1994) is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is the first athlete with three multi-event gold medals at the Olympic Games, winning the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Quotes I remember, I became very stressed competing at the 2012 World U20 Championships in Barcelona. I started to overthink and I fouled my first two attempts in the long jump. My mind then blew up and I was unable to stay calm and I ran through with my final jump [registering 4.39m]. I finished 14th overall, but I learned from that experience at my next major championship – the 2013 European Junior Championships [which she won with a national record 6298pts]. I always remind myself to relax and enjoy the moment and that competing at major championships is why I am involved in the sport. Even when you think the body has reached its limits, it can be pushed a little further. An example of this was at the Rio Olympics, when because of an elbow problem I was unable to throw for six weeks. During the shot, I started to feel my elbow, but I pushed through the pain to improve in the final round with 14.91m. I also felt this in the javelin, but managed to throw a PB of 53.13m, which proves the body can be pushed further than you think.   When I was younger, I experienced a sudden growth spurt and for a period I had difficulties with co-ordination and controlling my tall body. To get through this period I really had to focus and re-educate my body to master movement patterns. As heptathletes we have to try and perfect a whole range of different disciplines, and it is hard to have a flawless technique in every event. Consequently, at times when certain events don’t go smoothly, I try to go back to those basics like paying attention to lifting my knees in the high jump. My coach told me that I could achieve great things, but I needed to believe it. He told me at the age of 18 the [indoor pentathlon] world record was possible and I went on to achieve it. Believing in yourself is important. As a multi-eventer I don’t compete at so many meetings on the circuit, but when I do, I think it is important to think that travelling outside of your own country to compete is an amazing opportunity. I know without athletics, I wouldn’t have travelled as much. The days are long, especially at major championships, so I would say make sure you do the absolute minimum necessary and relax as best you can between the events. I’m ashamed to say I am a really bad cook! In the past I have cooked food which takes a really long time, so I would say try to find some recipe, which is quick and that you can cook well. My quick and easy recipe is chicken curry. I don’t really follow trends, but I would say find something that fits you and your body and that you feel comfortable in. It is from my mum who says, ‘asking for help, if you need it, is not a failure’. I used to try and work a lot out on my own, but asking for help sometimes is not such a bad thing. My mum told me to expect everybody on the road to do stupid things, so if you think and anticipate this to be the case, it reduces your chance of an accident. I always try to make sure I research the internet and find things to do which are a little off the beaten track. I recently went to New York for a couple of days and found out about going to the oldest magic store in the city – Tannen’s Magic Shop. I went to the sixth floor to buy some tricks and while I was there the staff helped teach me some new magic tricks. It was great fun, but one I wouldn’t have experienced if I had not taken the time out to research. For me, social media gives me the chance to share and give greater exposure to athletics and to get more people interested in the sport. I would say, just be yourself! "Enjoy the experience", April 5 2017 At first I was really afraid because I didn’t want that. After the Olympic Games I didn’t know really what more I could do. I was really surprised with my achievement there and I was thinking maybe I’m 21 and maybe I have reached my maximum already. Maybe I will never be that good again. There were a lot of questions and doubts on my mind. It was strange, I never used to worry about things like that before. I think after Rio I was just doing a bit too much, it was all new for me and there was a lot of attention on me suddenly. That was not easy, but it is part of the game now I had to learn to deal with it and that I have to perform despite all that. I went to Gotzis and I did something amazing and realised I can still improve a lot and I can still do great things in the years to come. It has given me a lot of confidence. I think for young athletes, girls and boys, sports can teach you a lot of things about life. Dedication, hard work, to go after your goals – those are all things that aren’t just useful in sports, but in school, at work and in your personal life. I know some girls might not find it very feminine, but I think everyone can find a sport that really fits them and their person – athletics is great because there is something for almost everyone. For me especially, I think I would be a very different person if I wouldn’t have done athletics. I was so tall, I was super thin, I found it really difficult to control my body and I had problems with my articulation. Sport really helped me fix all of those problems and to feel good today in my body. Outside of athletics and university I haven’t got much time, but for the next few years UNICEF really want to focus on education for kids. They came to me and explained the project and what they wanted to do and I thought it was really fitting to how I see life, because education is really important to me. I always wanted to get a degree and that has always been the mind set I have been raised in. I did some drawings, showed them what I liked, my ideas, because I really wanted it to be jewelry I would personally like to wear – something really delicate, small things – and that’s how I wanted the collection to be. “In the winter it is really hard because in Belgium I haven’t really got the facility to train for an indoor championships. I don’t have any facilities that I train in, so I can’t jump or I cannot throw during the winter. I can do a little bit, but when it starts snowing or it gets really cold we are really limited. Since I was a kid I remember not being really strong in [the running events] and I really want to limit the loss of points in those events and improve the points I get in my strongest events. Already in the 800m over the last few years I improved quite a bit. I can still do a bit better in the 200m. I have met a lot of people through athletics, I have made friends for life. In competition you experience a new sensation that you would never experience in any other walk of life Thiam embraces new-found confidence on and off the track, November 26 2017 It's hard training in Belgium in the winter, There's just one indoor track, but it's really far away [154km away, in Ghent], so we have to train outside all winter. And when it snows, that's not always easy. It was stressful, everything was very serious, It was the moment I really understood that athletics was what I wanted to do. A year later, the world juniors proved much tougher. I was really disappointed with the long jump, that was the event I'd worked a lot on, and my first two attempts were fouls, and then for the last attempt I was under pressure and I didn't really jump. I just ran into the pit. But it was an important experience, and I think I learned for it. Last year in Rieti [at the European junior champs], in the shot put, my first two attempts were fouls and for the final attempt I knew I had to stay calm. I threw a PB [14.26m]. Moscow was different. I was more relaxed than in Rieti or Barcelona. It was great to compete with all the athletes I was used to seeing on TV but I had to keep the competition in mind. After I won the high jump I started to think I could do something good in the heptathlon but there's a huge difference, The level is very high, but I know I'm still young and although I want to compete with the best, I am still far from the other girls. I'll have to train a lot. And harder, because I'm still really far from the top. At the moment I'm mainly working on running, especially the 800m. That's my... I am very bad! Also, the 200m. For the high jump, we don't really jump a lot, we do explosive, dynamic exercise but I don't do real high jumps in training. Outdoors, my target will be Zürich because there's no championships in my age group this year. It's not really a goal, but like Sopot or Moscow I will try to benefit from the good conditions and the competition to put in a good performance. For the moment, we haven't changed a lot. Year-on-year I do more training, for longer. But my coach says I am still young, and we don't want to rush things. I'm at university too, so I have to leave time for studying. But at the moment I am training six or seven times a week. I'll be 21 in Rio, and of course I think about it, but I prefer to stay focused on the goal for each year, so this year, Zürich and Beijing next. Anything could happen, just one thing at a time. Nafi the next great heptathlete, March 18 2014 External links Category:Track and field athletes Category:Sportspeople from Belgium Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:Women from Belgium Category:Women in sports Category:Women born in the 1990s Category:Olympic gold medalists