Nafassitou Thiam, Belgium, is 2017 IAAF Athlete of the Year!

Nafassitou Thiam, London World Champs 2017, photo by PhotoRun.net

It’s been a while since a heptathlete won the IAAF Athlete of the Year award. Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the last female multi eventer to win IAAF Athlete of year, and that was in 1994. Nafissatou Thiam dominated the multi events in 2017!

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In 2016, Nafissatou won Rio, and won wondered, what could be better than that?

Well, in 2017, Nafissatou Thiam won the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March. She dominated the competition. In May, Nafi showed her fitness with a score of 7,013 with the iconic Gotzis Meeting. 7,013 is the third finest score ever by a heptathlete. Nafi then overwhelmed the field in London, taking gold in the heptathlon there.

Here perfect year ended perfectly, with the IAAF Athlete of the Year award!

We thought you might like to hear how Nafassitou Thiam spoke of her win in London!

One final thought: if you get the chance to watch Nafassitou compete, just do it. Nafassitou Thiam is the most dominant mult eventer on the globe.

Great that IAAF recognized a muti eventer!

The 2017 London World Championships Heptathlon awards presser, courtesy of The Shoe Addicts

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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