Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam makes history by winning third a third straight gold in the heptathlon

SAINT-DENIS, France -- Sorry, but history wasn't the first thing that crossed Nafissatou Thiam's mind after her third Olympic gold in the women's heptathlon.

The sport that challenges her to compete across seven track-and-field disciplines over 30 or so hours doesn't allow much time for perspective. Not in the moment anyway.

When Thiam hit the finish line in the 800 — the final event — at the Paris Olympics on Friday night in a personal best time of 2 minutes, 10.62 seconds to become only the second woman ever to win three straight golds in the same track and field event at the Games, there was the familiar mix of exhaustion and elation as she fell to the purple track at Stade de France.

“I thought all this pain, hard work, sacrifice, all those moments where I felt lonely, all that pain, all that hard work, all of that paid off,” the 29-year-old Belgian said. “I’m really grateful for that.”

Thiam finished with a total of 6,880 points, just ahead of silver medalist Katrina Johnson-Thompson of Britain's 6,844. Thiam shared the podium with fellow Belgian Noor Vidts, who claimed bronze at 6,707.

The 36-point margin is the second-closest of Thiam's three Olympic victories. It also put her in select company, joining Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland as the only women to finish atop the podium in the same track and field event thrice. Wlodarczyk won the hammer throw in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

The hammer throw, however, is a single act done over and over again. The heptathlon is not that. Thiam and the rest of the field do everything from the high jump to the javelin to the shotput to the 200 meters. Oh and the long jump, the 100-meter hurdles and the 800 too.

Mastering so many disparate events in hopes of becoming the best female athlete on the planet can often be a solitary pursuit. It felt like it at times for Thiam. While she dedicated the victory to herself, she's well aware she hardly got here alone.

“It’s easy to support me today, and there were a lot of days where I needed the support when it was actually hard,” she said. “To the people who were there in those moments, had the kind words, just a hug in that moment… I thank them.”

Thiam cut herself while competing in the long jump, forcing her to stitch one of her legs for the rest of the meet. It hardly slowed her down. She poured what she had left into the 800 to fend off Jordan-Thompson. And when she was done was drained just like everyone else from Jordan-Thompson to American star Anna Hall on down, even if Thiam is hardly the same as everyone else.

“My body is like, ‘OK, you can let it go,'” she said. "I also feel very tired. It’s hard for me to even talk. I’m out of breath, my body is down. I’m done.”

For now. Thiam isn't ready to talk about the future. She's lost just one major competition in eight years. At times she has made it look easy. It wasn't. So rather than speculate about what's next, she'd rather enjoy what is.

“It’s always about the future, more, and more and more,” she said. “It’s been the best years working for this moment. What I want is to enjoy it, and nobody can take that from me. I won’t let anybody ruin this.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games