Nafissatou Thiam: How the three-time Olympic champion emerged from her “dark phase” into the light of historic games

CNN
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Even for the most successful heptathlete in Olympic history, the stresses and strains of a competition for the survival of the fittest are clearly noticeable.

Seven disciplines, squeezed into two hard-fought days, where small differences count for everything and yet nothing at the same time.

One meter in the javelin throw. One centimeter in the high jump. Less than a second in the 800 meters.

Margins that separate the good from the great and the great from the legendary.

With her third consecutive gold medal at the Paris Games, Belgian Nafissatou Thiam has now lived up to her own idea of ​​greatness.

“For 48 hours my heart was pounding like crazy,” Thiam told Amanda Davies of CNN Sport.

“I tried to keep everything under control. And it was a huge relief to cross the finish line and know that I had done it.”

However, the path to this latest, historic golden triumph – becoming the first all-round athlete in Olympic history to win three titles – was anything but straightforward.

If you look at the Belgian’s record before October 2022, you will be amazed at the list of his achievements.

She is a two-time consecutive Olympic champion, two-time world champion and two-time European champion – an athlete who is miles ahead of her competitors and enjoying a golden period of dominance.

But a decision in October 2022 would change everything.

“The biggest decision for me was to leave the environment in which I grew up for 14 years,” she says of her separation from her long-time coach and former Belgian decathlete Roger Lespagnard.

“From the age of 14 to 28, I trained with the same team, on the same track, and in the same group. I think that decision was difficult for many people to understand because I was still successful.

“I knew this was what I needed to do to continue to develop and, most importantly, continue to enjoy my sport.”

The separation from her coach was followed by another blow: Due to an Achilles tendon injury, she missed the chance to defend her world title in Budapest in 2023.

But change can be a double-edged sword: some changes thrive and flourish, others wither and wither.

In Thiam’s case, the former was the case.

For her, it was a life-changing decision to continue her growth path – which began at the 2016 Rio Olympics – and become a better athlete who can challenge norms and redefine what is possible in her field of sport.

“My first Games were in Rio and so much has happened since then. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs physically and mentally. I think you really learn something from that,” she tells CNN.

“Then I had to grow from that and get through that to get here. To be able to leave Paris with a gold medal, I really had to go through some dark places.

“I think it’s perhaps also a question of attitude, and I’ve become more and more aware of that recently. You have to make difficult decisions, hard decisions.

“If you want to do something extraordinary, you have to think outside the box and probably not do what everyone else is doing.”

The departure from the status quo has led to a new faith, a new sense of purpose and a new nostalgia – not only for the past but also for the future.

So how does the soon-to-be 30-year-old assess the Thiam of 2016 compared to the 2024 version?

“I think I just grew up – I was 21 years old and had a lot less pressure when I arrived here in Paris,” she says with a smile.

“There is so much pressure and sometimes I just want to go back to that place and remind myself that I’m actually just doing this to have fun.

“It seems like Rio was just yesterday (…) I really realised how precious these moments are and when I was on the track (in Paris) I really tried to take it all in because it would go by so quickly. And soon it will just be a memory, a beautiful memory, but just a memory, so I just try to live the moments.”

However, Thiam knows that these moments must be savoured as the competition behind her continues to grow and evolve to match and surpass her superior skills.

In Paris, British world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson was breathing down her neck from the start.

It was a neck-and-neck race until the last discipline – 800 m – in which the Belgian finally won her latest Olympic title with a lead of just 36 points in the overall ranking: 6880 to 6844.

Thiam only had a smaller lead once: at her first Olympic gold medal in Rio 2016, when she won by just 35 points over another Briton, Jessica Ennis-Hill.

But when the body is ready, the mind is ready too, and for this reason she has no intention of hanging up her spikes any time soon.

“Every day, everyone gets closer to the end of their career. I don’t think I’m finished yet. I’m an Olympic champion. I’m doing great at the moment,” she laughs.

“I think I can do more, so I’m definitely not thinking about stopping at the moment.

“My main goal, I’ve always said, is to be the best athlete I can be. I’m not there yet. I have to put everything together. But I’m working on it.

“I’m sure I can do better. I feel like I still have a lot of work to do and I think to really be able to leave the sport at peace, I need to go as far as I can and try everything before I’m done.”

So what is the still unfinished business of the seemingly untouchable Belgian?

“I think I’m not as pressured about medals anymore,” she says.

“I know I can have a really big win. It’s not easy to make that run and put it all together. I would love to do that, so I think I’ll try to focus on that.

“There are no guarantees in sport. Everyone knows that you work hard and then take everything that the sport gives you back. It has already given me so much, but maybe I can get a little more.”

But first, Paris is focusing on the present and offering Thiam a brief moment of reflection before a possible new Olympic cycle begins before the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

If the current cycle was once marked by change, it was change that ultimately occurred on their terms and whose end proved that the sacrifice had been worth it.

“I’ll remember Paris as something that did all that for me. I was able to live my career and prepare the way I really wanted to, and not for anyone else. I think that makes a big difference.”