8. NAFISSATOU THIAM
Nafi Thiam’s triumph at the Rio 2016 Games is a clear case of youth trumping experience. The 22-year old put up a formidable performance at the Olympics, eventually settling for the fairy tale ending she desired as she struck GOLD in the Heptathlon at her maiden outing at the Games, upstaging defending champion and tournament favourite, Jessica Ennis-Hill, as well as the in-form Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
The former European Juniors GOLD medallist was one of the standout Athletics performers in Rio as she set Personal Bests (PB) in five of her seven events: the 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Long Jump, Javelin and 800m. Her mark of 1.98m in the High Jump was a World Best and could have gotten her the GOLD medal in the individual event, which was won with 1.97m.
It is no wonder that Thiam added more than 300 points to her PB in the Heptathlon, winning the Olympic title in a National Record (NR) and World Lead (WL) of 6810. She was still 21 as at the time she attained this feat, making her only the second athlete after Carolina Kluft to have produced such a score at her age.
This was certainly a vast improvement from the Belgian’s 11th place finish at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. So stiff was the competition in Rio that six women surpassed 6500 points for the first time in history, with Ennis-Hill taking Silver with 6775 points, and Theisen-Eaton Bronze in 6653 points.
Speaking afterwards, Thiam said: “It’s crazy. I wasn’t expecting that – maybe top eight, but not the GOLD. It was very hard coming back from being injured. I wasn’t sure if I would even make these Games, but we did a lot of work with the physio and it worked.” Thiam eventually scooped the 2016 IAAF Female Rising Star award.
