Malaika Mihambo
Mihambo in 2022
Personal information
NationalityGerman
Born (1994-02-03) 3 February 1994[1]
Heidelberg, Germany[1][2]
Height1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Weight58 kg (128 lb)[1]
Sport
Country Germany
SportAthletics
EventLong jump
Coached byUlrich Knapp[3]
Ralf Weber (until 2019/Doha)[4]
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Germany
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2020 TokyoLong jump
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2019 DohaLong jump
Gold medal – first place2022 EugeneLong jump
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2018 BerlinLong jump
Silver medal – second place2022 MunichLong jump
Bronze medal – third place2016 AmsterdamLong jump
European Indoor Championships
Silver medal – second place2021 ToruńLong jump
European U23 Championships
Gold medal – first place2015 TallinnLong jump
European Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place2013 RietiLong jump

Malaika Mihambo (German: [maˈlaɪ̯ka miːˈhamboː] ⓘ; born 3 February 1994) is a German athlete, the current Olympic champion and 2022 world champion in long jump.

Career

Mihambo's athletic career began around 2009, when at the age of 15 she became the German under-16 champion with the heptathlon team as well as setting a best performance with the 4x100 meters relay team that lasted until 2018.[5] In the long jump she finished ninth at the 2011 World Youth Championships, then competed at the 2012 World Junior Championships and the 2013 World Championships, without reaching the final. She also won the gold medal at the 2013 European Junior Championships, and finished fourth at the 2014 European Championships.

Her first senior major event Mihambo won at the 2014 European Team Championships, setting the new championship record with a jump of 6.90 meters. In 2015, she won the gold medal at the European U23 Championships and finished sixth at the World Championships. She narrowly missed a medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth, but won the bronze medal at the 2016 European Athletics Championships. Then a serious foot injury ruined her preparations for the 2017 World Championships. After difficult months with an uncertain sporting future the injury was overcome,[6] and she finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships.

With the gold medal at the 2018 European Athletics Championships, Mihambo's star began to rise into the world's top long jump. In 2019, she had her most successful season so far with a series of jumps over 7 meters.[7][8] She won the IAAF Diamond League and became world champion for the first time. In 2021 Mihambo crowned Olympic champion at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo with a jump of 7.00 meters,[9] beating Brittney Reese and Ese Brume, both with 6.97 meters. Mihambo experienced the preliminary highlight of her career as the first European to become world champion in the long jump at least twice in a row – at the 2022 World Athletics Championships she defended her world title from 2019 with a SB of 7.12 meters and won the gold medal again. This also makes her the first long jumper ever to win at the world's most important track and field competitions four times in consecutive years.[10] The streak came to an end during the 2022 European Championships - ailing in health but with a huge support of the home crowd, Mihambo managed a 7.03m leap to finish silver, while Ivana Vuleta (SRB) became the new European champion with 3cm more; Jazmin Sawyers (representing England) won the bronze medal (6.80m).

Mihambo's personal best in the long jump is 7.30 meters, achieved on October 6 at the 2019 World Championships in Doha; since then, this distance has not been surpassed by any female jumper. The foundations of their success are essentially due to a kind of symbiotic interaction with physics and sports teacher Ralf Weber, who had been accompanying her as a coach since she was ten years old. Both developed their extensive skills together by supporting each other within a manageably small family environment, as well as permanently incorporating international experience into their training. The club she represents is the LG (Track and Field Community) Kurpfalz.[11]

Personal life

Her mother Petra Mihambo-Fichtner is German and her father is Tanzanian; she grew up and went to school in the municipality of Oftersheim.[12] Mihambo studied political science at the University of Mannheim on a sports scholarship, graduating in 2016.[13] Since April 2019, she has been studying in the postgraduate master's program in environmental sciences at the University of Hagen and is involved in a social project for children.[14][15] On December 15, 2020, Mihambo was named “Germany's Sportswoman of the Year“ for the third time in a row; a world best of 7.03 meters on the athletic level was followed by special recognition for her social commitment to helping children and families get into athletics on the one hand and social contacts on the other.[16][17]

Major competitive record

Mihambo at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  Germany
2011 World Youth Championships Lille, France 9th Long jump 5.81 m
2012 World Junior Championships Barcelona, Spain 14th (q) Long jump 6.15 m
2013 European Junior Championships Rieti, Italy 1st Long jump 6.70 m
World Championships Moscow, Russia 18th (q) Long jump 6.49 m
2014 European Team Championships Braunschweig, Germany 1st Long jump 6.90 m, CR
European Championships Zürich, Switzerland 4th Long jump 6.65 m
2015 European U23 Championships Tallinn, Estonia 1st Long jump 6.73 m
World Championships Beijing, China 6th Long jump 6.79 m
2016 European Championships Amsterdam, Netherlands 3rd Long jump 6.65 m
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 4th Long jump 6.95 m
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 5th Long jump 6.64 m
European Championships Berlin, Germany 1st Long jump 6.75 m
2019 European Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 4th Long jump 6.83 m
European Team Championships Bydgoszcz, Poland 1st Long jump 7.11 m
World Championships Doha, Qatar 1st Long jump 7.30 m, WL
2021 European Indoor Championships Toruń, Poland 2nd Long jump 6.88 m
Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 1st Long jump 7.00 m
2022 World Championships Eugene, United States 1st Long jump 7.12 m
European Championships Munich, Germany 2nd Long jump 7.03 m
2023 European Indoor Championships Istanbul, Turkey 4th Long jump 6.83 m

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Malaika Mihambo". Team Deutschland (in German). Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  2. ↑ Christian Beister: „Mein Traum ist es, im Finale zu springen“. (My dream is to jump in the final.) In: Schwetzinger Zeitung, 9 August 2013, p. 28.
  3. ↑ "Malaika Mihambo trainiert jetzt in Saarbrücken (Malaika Mihambo now trains in Saarbrücken)". Saarbrücker Zeitung (in German). 13 July 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Ralf Weber als "Trainer des Jahres 2019" geehrt (Ralf Weber honored as Coach of the Year 2019)". TSV Oftersheim (in German). 7 November 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  5. ↑ Leichtathletik Gemeinschaft Kurpfalz – Historie (Athletics Community Kurpfalz - History) – www.lgkurpfalz.de. Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  6. ↑ Malaika Mihambo meldet sich mit vielversprechendem Test zurück (Malaika Mihambo reports back with promising test) – www.leichtathletik.de/news, 15 May 2018. Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  7. ↑ Senior Outdoor 2019 Long Jump Women – www.worldathletics.org. Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  8. ↑ Malaika Mihambo at World Athletics
  9. ↑ Die eigenen Zweifel besiegt (Defeating the own doubts) – www.fr.de (Frankfurter Rundschau), 3 August 2021. Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  10. ↑ Highlights – Malaika Mihambo wins second world long jump title – world-track.org, 26 July 2022. Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  11. ↑ Leichtathletik Gemeinschaft Kurpfalz (Kurpfalz Athletics Community) – www.lgkurpfalz.de (homepage). Retrieved 27 July, 2022.
  12. ↑ Olympiasiegerin Malaika Mihambo in Dessau zum Gespräch: Karriere, Erfolge, Privat (Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo in Dessau for a talk: career, successes, private life) In: Anhalt Sport e. V., 18 January 2022. Retrieved 31 July, 2022.
  13. ↑ Malaika Mihambo ist „Sportstipendiatin des Jahres“ 2014 (Malaika Mihambo is Sports Scholar of the Year 2014) Archived 12 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine In: uni-mannheim.de, 12 September 2014
  14. ↑ FernUni-Studentin holt WM-Titel in Doha (FernUni student wins world championship title in Doha) – fernuni-hagen.de, 2 October 2019. Retrieved 26 July, 2022.
  15. ↑ Meisterin im Sand mit Interessen weit über den Sport hinaus (Champion of the sand with interests far beyond the sport) – www.leichtathletik.de, 4 October 2019. Retrieved 26 July, 2022.
  16. ↑ Sportler des Jahres (Athlete of the year) – sportjournalist.de/VDS, 21 Decembre 2020. Retrieved 26 July, 2022.
  17. ↑ Malaika Mihambo – Home – www.malaika-mihambo.com. Retrieved 26 July, 2022.
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