Nafissatou Thiam completed a second treble of major championships gold medals before her 28th birthday at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, but the Belgian wants to achieve more in her career.
“Championships remain the goal. I want to keep winning medals, but now I’m also thinking about points, results, and records. I want to go as far as possible. I want to reach my maximum potential”, said Nafi Thiam.
The Belgian is among the four athletes who have passed the mark of 7,000 points in the heptathlon. With her personal best of 7,013 points from 2017, she is third in the all-time world rankings. Only world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee with 7,291 points from 1988 and Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, who holds the European record and second place in the all-time world ranking with 7,032 points, have been better than her.
Because of his new goals, Nafissatou Thiam also made a radical change in her training team. She released her long-time mentor, Roger Lespagnard, who led her to the greatest successes of her career.
The 28-year-old Belgian is already training with Michael Van der Plaetsen, brother and coach of European decathlon champion from Amsterdam 2016 Thomas Van der Plaetsen. Michael will be Thiam’s head coach, although she will seek advice from other specialist coaches in her zeal to reach her potential. The two have worked together in the past, albeit coincidentally. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Michael Van der Plaetsen replaced Thiam’s coach on the second day after Roger Lespagnard was forced into self-isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus.
“I thought about it for a long time. It has been a fruitful collaboration, but after 14 years I want to continue learning and developing. Working in your comfort zone is comforting, but you develop as a person and as an athlete. I wanted to work differently at this stage. So what can Michael teach me? I won’t make comparisons. There is no point in saying what could be better or different. But maybe it will be less traditional, a little more modern”, said Nafissatou Thiam.
