Fiona May Iapichino (born 12 December 1969 in Slough, England) is a retired

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who competed for the United Kingdom and later Italy in the

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 ...

. She won 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, ...

twice and two Olympic silver medals. Her personal best jump was 7.11 metres, which was her silver medal result at the 1998 European Championships.

Biography

She also competed briefly in

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

, and her career best of 14.65 metres from 1998 was good enough to place fifth in the world that season. May originally competed for Great Britain, but married Gianni Iapichino and became an Italian citizen in 1994. Iapichino, a former

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

er whose best achievements were a fifth and sixth place at the European Indoor Championships in 1992 and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, was her coach as well. May gave birth to a daughter in 2002, and missed the whole season as a result. Her last significant competition was the 2005 World Championships, where she failed to reach the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. May and Iapichino were married until 2011. Born in Slough and raised in Derby, May attended Leeds Trinity & All Saints College, a college affiliated with the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, studying economics, business management and administration. In 2006, she retired from competitions and started a new successful career in show business. After some modelling, she became the spokeswoman of the Kinder snacks and she won the Italian version of '' Dancing with the Stars'' in 2006. Later that year her acting debut was broadcast on

Rai Uno Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream and gener ...

as the protagonist of '' Butta la luna'', a miniseries about racism and social integration. In 2019 Fiona May become the testimonial of the Italian

Salesians of Don Bosco , image = File:Stemma big.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , abbreviation = SDB , formation = , founder = John Bosco , founding_location = Valdocco, Turi ...

's missions in Africa and particularly of their Ethiopian activities for

baby mama A baby mama (also baby mother, or hyphenated baby-mama) is a slang term for a mother who is not marriage, married to her child's father, although the term often carries other connotations as well. This term is associated with African Americans ...

Family

May's parents are Jamaican. She is also rugby player Marcel Garvey's cousin. Her daughter, Larissa Iapichino, is following her parents' footsteps and is currently the 300 metres hurdles Italian and European champion.

Achievements

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:May, Fiona 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Slough Sportspeople from Derby Italian female long jumpers English female long jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Olympic athletes of Italy Olympic silver medalists for Italy Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain World Athletics Championships athletes for Italy World Athletics Championships medalists Dancing with the Stars winners Naturalised citizens of Italy English emigrants to Italy Italian people of Jamaican descent European sportspeople of Jamaican descent English sportspeople of Jamaican descent Alumni of Leeds Trinity University Alumni of the University of Leeds Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Universiade silver medalists for Great Britain World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners Black British sportswomen Medalists at the 1991 Summer Universiade Reality show winners

Biography

Family

Achievements

See also

References

External links