Malaika Mihambo (; born 3 February 1994) is a German

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

and the current

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

champion in

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

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. 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 The fifth European Athletics Team Championships took place on 21 and 22 June 2014. Calendar Super League Place: Eintracht-Stadion, Braunschweig, Germany Participating countries * * * * * * * * * * * * Men's events Women' ...

, 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 A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. She narrowly missed a medal at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

, finishing fourth, but won the bronze medal at the

2016 European Athletics Championships The 2016 European Athletics Championships was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, between 6 and 10 July 2016. It was the first time the Netherlands hosted the event. Due to 2016 being an Olympic year, there was no racewalking and the marathon compet ...

. 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, and she finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships. With the gold medal at the

2018 European Athletics Championships The 2018 European Athletics Championships were held in Berlin, Germany, from 6 to 12 August 2018. The championships were part of the first European Championships with other events happening in the United Kingdom. For the second Championships in a ...

, 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. She won the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

and became

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for the first time. In 2021 Mihambo crowned Olympic champion at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

with a jump of 7.00 meters, beating

Brittney Reese Brittney Davon Reese (born September 9, 1986) is a retired American long jumper, Olympic gold medalist, and a seven-time world champion. Reese is the indoor American record holder in the long jump with a distance of 7.23 meters. Personal Born in ...

and

Ese Brume Ese Brume Member of the Order of the Niger, MON (born 20 January 1996) is a Nigerians, Nigerian Sport of athletics, athlete who specializes in the long jump. She is the current commonwealth champion and a three-time African senior champion in t ...

, 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 The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the f ...

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. 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 Ivana Vuleta (; sr-cyr, Ивана Вулета, , ; born 10 May 1990) is a Serbian long jumper, two-time World indoor champion, three times European indoor champion and reigning European champion. In 2013, Vuleta became the first Serbian tr ...

(SRB) became the new European champion with 3cm more;

Jazmin Sawyers Jazmin Sawyers (born 21 May 1994) is a British track and field athlete who competes in the long jump, and sports presenter. She has also competed as a bobsledder and a heptathlete. Representing England, she was the silver medallist in the long ...

(representing

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) 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''.

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. Mihambo studied political science at the

University of Mannheim The University of Mannheim (German: ''Universität Mannheim''), abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the ''Palatine Academy of Sciences'', ...

on a sports scholarship, graduating in 2016. Since April 2019, she has been studying in the postgraduate master's program in environmental sciences at the

University of Hagen The University of Hagen (german: link=no, FernUniversität in Hagen, informally often referred to as FU Hagen) is a public research university that is primarily focused on distance teaching. While its main campus is located in Hagen, North Rh ...

and is involved in a social project for children. 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.Malaika Mihambo – ''Home''
– www.malaika-mihambo.com. Retrieved 26 July, 2022.

Major competitive record

Malaika Mihambo (2013 World Championships in Athletics) 02

References

External links

*

– TheSports.org. Retrieved July 25, 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihambo, Malaika 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Heidelberg German female long jumpers Olympic female long jumpers Olympic athletes of Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships athletes for Germany World Athletics Championships winners European Athletics Championships winners German national athletics champions Diamond League winners University of Mannheim alumni