Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam became the first woman in history to win three consecutive Olympic heptathlon crowns on Friday, sealing victory ahead of Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Thiam, the 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion, finished with 6,880 points after the 800m, the final event in the seven-discipline test of endurance.
Johnson-Thompson took silver with 6,844 points while Thiam’s compatriot Noor Vidts won bronze with 6,707 points.
Thiam had taken a giant stride towards sealing her title after Friday’s morning events, when a massive 54.04m javelin throw left her 121 points clear of Johnson-Thompson after six events.
That left Thiam needing to finish within eight seconds of Johnson-Thompson’s time in the 800m.
Johnson-Thompson battled bravely down the stretch in the 800m to put as much distance between her and Thiam, finishing second in 2min 04.90sec.
But a weary Thiam just managed to scrape inside the eight-second window, crossing in 2:10.62 to claim her third Olympic gold.
