Nafi Thiam: The undisputed GOAT of the heptathlon

Nafi Thiam claimed an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title in Paris, further cementing her status as the GOAT of heptathlon.

Thiam scored 6880 points, beating Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson (silver) and compatriot Noor Vidts (bronze). Let's take a look at the Belgian legend's career so far. Results and career stats are sourced from World Athletics, unless otherwise stated.

The Belgian heptathlon legend qualified for Paris in June 2024, winning a third European Championship, showing her good form.

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According to her personal website, Thiam was born in the Belgian city of Brussels to a Belgian mother and a Senegalese father.

As a young athlete, Thiam proved to be a prodigy. In 2013, she broke the world junior indoor pentathlon world record, taking it from Swedish legend Carolina Klüft, although the record was not ratified. She then went on to become European junior heptathlon champion. Thiam had shown her enormous potential, but it was only the beginning of what was to come for the future legend.

In 2014, Thiam really claimed her place at the top with a bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich (Switzerland). In the pentathlon, she won a silver medal at the European Indoor Championships in Prague (Czech Republic) in 2015.

All this turned out to be mere preparation for the Rio Olympics in 2016, where Thiam introduced herself to the world, despite problems with her shoulder. She scored 6810 points in the heptathlon and beat reigning Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill for the gold medal, crowning herself the youngest Olympic medal winner ever in the heptathlon.

She instantly became one of the most successful Belgian athletes in history and was rewarded with the role of flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympics. But there was more to come, much more.

The year after her first Olympic title, Thiam won her first world heptathlon title in London. She currently has two world titles to her name, having picked up silver in Doha (2019) and gold in Eugene (2022).

In 2021, Thiam competed at the Tokyo Olympics, where she wanted to defend her title. She did so successfully, scoring 6791 points, enough to beat the Netherlands' Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel. Thiam's compatriot Noor Vidts came fourth.

Thiam is a versatile athlete, but she excels in certain disciplines, especially the high jump. She proved this in 2019 by beating the world heptathlon high jump record at the Decastar heptathlon event in Talence, France, per The Brussels Times.

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Her excellent performances and results have made Thiam a very popular athlete, widely acclaimed by the specialised press, colleagues and the general public. She has been named Belgian Sportswoman of the Year on four occasions and IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year in 2017, among other awards.

This also makes her a popular face for brands. On her personal website, she reveals that she has partnered with Red Bull, Richard Mille and Nike, among other brands.

Thiam is a very smiley athlete with a great personality and many fans. We can see this on Instagram, where she currently has 303,000 followers and gives us a glimpse of her life on and off the track.

It was not all sunshine and rainbows, however, for Thiam. In October 2022, she decided to separate from her coach, Roger Lespagnard, with whom she had worked for fourteen years, according to Belgian sports outlet Sporza.

"I will forever be proud of everything we have achieved together. This is the beginning of a new chapter," she wrote on Instagram. Her new coach would be Michael Van der Plaetsen, who should provide Thiam with a "more modern approach", as she revealed during an online press event.

Under Van der Plaetsen's guidance, Thiam added another world record to her haul in March 2023, scoring 5055 points to win her third European indoor pentathlon title in Istanbul, Turkey.

A good sign for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, where Thiam wanted to defend her Olympic title and underline her status as the undisputed queen of the heptathlon. And she did, in emphatic fashion.

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